The Oldest Fossil Bee: Apoid History, Evolutionary Stasis, and Antiquity of Social Behavior

Trigona prisca, a stingless honey bee (Apidae; Meliponinae), is reported from Cretaceous New Jersey amber (96-74 million years before present). This is about twice the age of the oldest previously known fossil bee, although Trigona is one of the most derived bee genera. T. prisca is closely similar to modern neotropical species. Most of bee evolution probably occurred during the approximately 50 million years between the beginning of the Cretaceous when flowering plants (on which bees depend) appeared and the time of T. prisca. Since then, in this phyletic line of Meliponinae, there has been almost no morphological evolution. Since the fossil is a worker, social organization had arisen by its time.