Miocene honey bees from the Randeck Maar of southwestern Germany (Hymenoptera, Apidae)
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Issue Date
2011-03-10Author
Ulrich, Kotthoff
Wappler, Torsten
Engel, Michael S.
Publisher
Pensoft Publishers
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The Miocene Randeck Maar (southwestern Germany) is one of the only sites with abundant material of fossil honey bees. The fauna has been the focus of much scrutiny by early authors who recognized multiple species or subspecies within the fauna. The history of work on the Randeck Maar is briefly reviewed and these fossils placed into context with other Tertiary and living species of the genus Apis Linnaeus (Apinae: Apini). Previously unrecorded specimens from Randeck Maar were compared with earlier series in an attempt to evaluate the observed variation. A morphometric analysis of forewing venation angles across representative Recent and Tertiary species of Apis as well as various non-Apini controls was undertaken to evaluate the distribution of variation in fossil honey bees. The resulting dendrogram shows considerable variation concerning the wing venation of Miocene Apini, but intergradation of other morphological characters reveals no clear pattern of separate species. This suggests that a single, highly variable species was present in Europe during the Miocene. The pattern also supports the notion that the multiple species and subspecies proposed by earlier authors for the Randeck Maar honey bee fauna are not valid, and all are accordingly recognized as Apis armbrusteri Zeuner.
Description
This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.pensoft.net.
ISSN
1313-2989Collections
Citation
Ulrich, Kotthoff; Torsten, Wappler; Engel, Michael S. 2011. Miocene honey bees from the Randeck Maar, southwest Germany (Hymenoptera, Apidae). ZooKeys 96:11-37. http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.96.752
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