From: naturebee
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 6:34 PM
To: HistoricalHoneybeeArticles@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HistoricalHoneybeeArticles] 14 million B.C. - Apis nearctica



New Apis fossil Extends Honey Bee Geographic Spread to North America
http://beekeepingtimes.com/content/view/254/81/

New Apis fossil Extends Honey Bee Geographic Spread to North America

Pune, August 11, 2009 (source: Susan Milius report in Science News, Vol. 176,
No. 4, August 15, 2009; Engel et al. 2009*): The long-held view that honey bees
are native to the Asian and European continents needs revision with the
discovery of a fossil species of Apis recovered from the paper shales of the
Stewart Valley basin in west-central Nevada, USA, by Engel, Hinojosa-Diaz of the
University of Kansas, USA and Rasnitsyn of the Palaeontological Institute,
Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. Presenting the results of their study in
the May 7, 2009 issue of the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences,
the scientists named the new fossil honey bee from Middle Miocene of Stewart
Valley, Nevada as Apis nearctica. The species according to them belongs to the
Cascapis Engel group in the genus Apis. It is most similar to the extinct
species A. armbrusteri found from the Miocene of southwestern Germany.

Engel had earlier (2006**) listed eight fossil (?) and seven living species of
Apis.

* henshawi species group (Priorapis Engel) - ?Apis vetusta Engel, Oligocene,
Germany; ?Apis henshawi Cockerell, Upper Oligocene-Lower Miocene, Rott, Germany;
?Apis petrefacta Riha, Oligocene, Czech Republic; ?Apis miocenica Hong, Miocene,
Shanwang, Shandong, China; ?Apis longtibia Zhang, Miocene, Shandong Province,
China; ?Apis "Miocene 1" (location and other details not given)

* armbrusteri species group (Cascapis Engel) - ?Apis armbrusteri - northern
Europe, Early to Middle Miocene

* florea species group (Micrapis Ashmead) - Apis florea Fabricius; Apis
andreniformis Smith

* dorsata species group (Megapis Ashmead) - ?Apis lithohermaea Engel, Middle
Miocene, Japan; Apis dorsata Frabicius

* mellifera species group (Apis Linneaus s. stricto) - Apis mellifera Linnaeus
s. strictissimo)

* cerana subgroup (Sigmatapis Maa) - Apis cerana Fabricius; Apis nigrocincta
Smith; Apis koschevnikovi Enderlein

All these species are from Asian or European locations. The new North American
species is placed by the researchers in the 'armbrusteri' species group.

The roughly 14-million-old Apis fossil "rewrites the history of honeybee
evolution", according to Engel. Susan Milius report further adds that Engel
wasn't expecting to rewrite the continent's history when he first heard the
California Academy's Wojciech Pulawski describe some unidentified fossils from
west-central Nevada. But, after spotting a definitive pattern in the wing and
the hairy eyes, as also the barbs on the sting he was certain that the fossil
just can't be anything but honey bee.

Regarding the presence of the fossil honey bee in North America and the absence
of native honey bees at present, Engel et al. feel that honey bee species of
Cascapis group (like Apis armbrusteri) were widespread across Europe and Asia
during the Early and Mid-Miocene, perhaps even the late Oligocene (about 25 - 15
million years ago). They could have dispersed into western North America via
Beringia - the land bridge that joined the present-day Alaska and eastern
Siberia at various times at that period of time. During the latter part of the
Miocene this passageway disappeared, which perhaps led to the isolation and
speciation of A. nearctica. Evenual climatic changes towards the end of Miocene
probably forced the bee species to extinction. Similar migrations of animal and
plant groups between Asia and North America as also eventual extinction of some
of them have been well-known.

------------
*Engel, M.S., Hinojosa-Diaz, I.A. and Rasnitsyn, A.P. 2009. A honey bee from the
Miocene of Nevada and the biogeography of Apis (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apini).
Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 60 (3): 23-38.
**Engel, M.S. 2006. A Giant Honey Bee from the Middle Miocene of Japan
(Hymenoptera: Apidae). American Museum Novitates No. 3504.





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