Internet Archive's in-browser bookreader "theater" requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

A giant honey bee from the middle Miocene of Japan (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

by: Engel, Michael S

Publication date: 2006

Usage: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Topics: Apis lithohermaea, Bees, Fossil, Insects, Fossil, Paleontology, Bees, Fossil -- Japan -- Iki Island (Nagasaki-ken), Insects, Fossil -- Japan -- Iki Island (Nagasaki-ken), Paleontology -- Miocene -- Japan -- Iki Island (Nagasaki-ken), Paleontology -- Japan -- Iki Island (Nagasaki-ken)

Publisher: New York, NY : American Museum of Natural History

Collection: americanmuseumnaturalhistory; biodiversity

Contributor: American Museum of Natural History Library

Language: English

Rights: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/permissions

Rights-holder: American Museum of Natural History Library

Volume: no. 3504

12 p. : 26 cm

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

Title from caption

"January 12, 2006."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 8-10)

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.