Abstract: To detect the gene flow and gene introgression among different populations, and to evaluate the diversity of Italian honeybee, Apis mellifera ligustica, from different regions in China, the genetic variability of A. m. ligustica was screened in 34 sites from 16 provinces in China where the beekeeping was flourishing with ten polymorphic microsatellite loci. Samples of A. m. carnica from Germany and A. m. ligustica from the USA were genotyped for comparison. The SSR data were analyzed with the software of NTSYS-pc2.1 and popGene32. The results showed that eight of the ten polymorphic microsatellite loci were useful markers to detect the polymorphism of A. m. ligustica. When Nei’s genetic identity index exceeded 0.61, distinct genetic divergence was found in the samples from Zhejiang, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan, while other samples still kept unique genetic characteristics typical in the subspecies A.m. ligustica. The samples from northeast of China and Xinjiang region had a close descent relationship with A. m. carnica （the genetic distances between them were all below 0.18149）, which might result from the hybridization with A.m. mellifera to some extent. It is so proposed that the characteristics typical of A. m. ligustica and its genetic variability should be protected and the breeding line should be in line with a scientific criterion.

Key words: Apis mellifera ligustica, Apis mellifera carnica, DNA polymorphism, microsatellite, NTSYS, popGene