The honey bee, Apis mellifera L. 1758, is naturally found
throughout Europe, Africa and Western Asia (Miguel et
al., 2011). In recent years, based on morphometry, 26
subspecies have been identified and clustered into four
evolutionary lineages (Ruttner, 1988; Sheppard et al.,
1997; Engel, 1999; Sheppard and Meixner, 2003; Miguel
et al., 2011). The indigenous honey bee of Saudi Arabia,
which is the focus of this publication, was characterized
morphometrically by Ruttner in 1975 as Apis mellifera