A giant honey bee from the middle Miocene of Japan (Hymenoptera, Apidae). American Museum novitates ; no. 3504

Abstract

A new fossil honey bee is described and figured from middle Miocene deposits of Iki Island, Japan. Apis lithohermaea n.sp., is the largest fossil honey bee discovered, rivaling in size the modern giant honey bee, A. dorsata Fabricius. Apis lithohermaea is the first fossil of the dorsata species group recorded. Although the dorsata group does not occur farther north than Tibet and southern China and in the Philippines in the Pacific, this lineage occurred near what is today southern Korea and Japan during the Miocene. The geological history of the honey bees is briefly discussed in light of this new discovery. Important notes on the taxonomy of some honey bees (A. henshawi Cockerell, A. aquitaniensis de Rilly, and subspecies within A. mellifera Linnaeus and A. cerana Fabricius) are appended.