Apis mellifera macedonica

The Macedonian bee (Apis mellifera macedonica) is a subspecies of the western honey bee. It is found mainly in Albania,^[1] Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Northern Greece and other places in the Balkans as well. Originally this subspecies was described based on morphological characteristics by Friedrich Ruttner, as were the adami, cecropia and cypria subspecies.

Macedonian bee
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Genus:	Apis
Species:	A. mellifera
Subspecies:	A. m. macedonica
Trinomial name
Apis mellifera macedonica Ruttner, 1988
Synonyms
Apis mellifera rodopica Petrov, 1991

The bee populations of Thrace, Macedonia, Central Greece and the Peloponnese are completely distinguishable from those on the island of Crete. Studies of bee populations in 2005^{[citation needed]} from various areas of Greece (Ikaria, Kasos, Kythira, Phthiotis, Macedonia) and Cyprus analyzing mitochondrial DNA segments and finding differences in enzymatic restrictions, resulting in Apis mellifera adami, Apis mellifera cecropia and Apis mellifera cypria having a haplotype which differs from the Macedonian Apis mellifera haplotype, this subspecies being the most distant of all.

Non-recognition of the Ruttner hypothesis

Ruttner distinguished A. m. macedonica from A. m. carnica in 1988, assigning a geographical distribution to the subspecies in northern Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and (perhaps) part of the former USSR. Other naturalists^{[citation needed]} recognize Ruttner's subspecies as A. m. rodopica and A. m. carpatica.