GENETIC AND WITHIN-COLONY ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS OF VARIATION IN THE HAMULI NUMBER OF AFRICANIZED HONEY-BEES (APIS-MELLIFERA L)

We analysed the genetic and within-colony components of variation in t he hamuli number of an Africanized honey bee population, using the met hodology proposed by Oldroyd and Moran (Aust. J. Biol. Sci. 36:323-332 , 1983), modified to account for within-colony environmental variation . Estimated heritability was equal to 0.6768 +/- 0.2991, assuming that queens were inseminated by 17 unrelated drones, and the within-colony environmental variance component was non significant (F=0.02; P=0.996 ). This indicates that heritabilities of hamuli number obtained using the methodology proposed by Oldroyd and Moran (Aust. J. Biol. Sci. 36: 323-332, 1983) are not seriously affected by within colony environmen tal effects, at least in this population of Africanized honey bees.