This bee type belongs to the branch of bee classified by Ruttner (1988) as "Oriental".[6] A recent genetic study confirmed that the sub-species belongs to an Eastern Europe branch of the genotype of the honey bee. Mitochondrial Deoxyribonucleaic acid (mtDNA) analysis of Thracian bees showed some similarities to the Apis mellifera carnica, although this same similarity was absent from Anatolian bee samples (Smith and Brown (1990) & Meixner et al. (1993). The cause of this is given as inter-breeding of native populations with nearby Austrian, Slovakian and Croatian bees.[7]
References
^(French) Brother Adam & G.Ledent (perso.fundp.ac.be website) referenced content within 3rd sentence of L'abeille d'Anatolie Centrale in BA 29(4) 1965 p81-85 of La Belgique Apicole,28 & 29 1964–65 [Retrieved 2011-12-21]
H. V. Gençer, E. Başpinar, Ç. Firatli (2003) websiteThe Graphic Evaluation of Morphological Characters in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) by Chernoff Faces TARIM BİLİMLERİ DERGİSİ 2004, 10 (3) 245–249