Biogeography of Apis cerana F. and A-nigrocincta Smith: insights from mtDNA studies

This study adds new data from Korea and the Philippines to earlier mitochon drial DNA (mtDNA)-based studies of the phylogeography of Asian cavity-nesti ng honeybees. A non-coding region that lies between the leucine tRNA gene a nd the cytochrome oxidase II gene of the mitochondrial genome was sequenced in bees from 153 colonies of Apis cerana and A. nigrocincta, revealing 41 different haplotypes. Five sequences could not be aligned with the others, two (from India and Sri Lanka) because the sequences were exceedingly A+T r ich, and three (from Taiwan, the Philippines, and A. nigrocincta) because m ost of the non-coding sequence was absent. The remaining 36 sequences were aligned, and used in a phylogenetic analysis of A. cerana and A. nigrocinct a populations. Both neighbor-joining and parsimony analyses were carried ou t, yielding similar results. We found five major groups of haplotypes: an A sian mainland group, a Sundaland group, a Palawan group, a Luzon-Mindanao g roup, and A. nigrocincta. The geographic distribution of these mtDNA haplot ypes appears to be strongly influenced by changes in sea-level during Pleis tocene glaciations.