author(s)
Shakib Vaziritabar and Sayed Mehdi Esmaeilzade

abstract
The objective of present work consists of two different experiments conducted in the years 2015-2016 (1) Comparative study for evaluating relative varroa mite levels and colony strengths within pairs of between Apis mellifera meda (Iranian race) and two exotic honey bee colonies, Apis mellifera anatolia (Turkey race) and Apis mellifera caucasica (Russian hybrid race). (2) The fifteen morphological characteristics examined A. m. meda, A. m. anatoliaca and hybrid A. m. caucasica. Results showed that colony mortality was not different between the three stocks (Turkey: 4.80%, Iranian: 5.10%, Russian: 6.12%; χ²=0.29, p= 0.72) respectively. 96.4% of all sampled colonies were infested by varroa mites during the first season, and there was no significant difference in the incidence of varroa between the three stocks (χ²=0.63, p=0.70). Iranian and Turkish colonies had significantly greater adult populations (paired t-test = 2.54, p<0.05), as well as numerically larger comb areas (paired t-test = 1.78, p=0.05).