Honeybees, Apis spp., are important pollinators in modern ecosystems and agricultural settings, with one species, Apis mellifera being the world's most abundant domesticated Insect. There are nine described species of extant Honeybees, split into three genera, Cavity-nesting Honeybees Apis (Apis), Small Honeybees Apis (Micrapis), and Giant Honeybees Apis (Magaapis), although the Domestic Honeybee does not appear to fit into any of these, and may be a hybrid. Apis mellifera is found over a wide area of Asia, Africa, and Europe, but other extant species of Honeybee are restricted to tropical and subtropical areas of South and Southeast Asia, with the exception of Apis cerana, which has a range extending into temperate parts of East Asia.
A number of Fossil Honeybee species have been described from the Oligocene and Miocene of Europe, East Asia, and North America, most of which are assigned to extinct subgenera. These include Apis (Cascapis) nearctica, Miocene, from Nevada, Apis (Priorapis) vetusta, Oligocene, Apis (Synapis) henshawi, Oligo-Miocene, and Apis (Cascapis) armbrusteri, Miocene, from Germany, Apis (Synapis) petrefacta, Oligocene, from Czechia, Apis (Synapis) miocenica, and Apis (Synapis) dalica, both Miocene, from China, Apis (Synapis) longtibia, and Apis (Megapis) lithohermaea, both Miocene, from Japan. Thus, of the three extant subgenera, only Apis (Megapis) has a fossil record, although phylogenetic reconstructions suggest that all three originated towards the end of the Eocene. A number of subfossil Honeybees are also known from Latest Pleistocene and Holocene deposits, all of which have been ascribed to living species.
In a paper published in the journal Zookeys on 13 October 2025, Yui Takahashi of the Keio Yochisha Elementary School, and Jun-ichi Takahashi of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Kyoto Sangyo University, describe a new species of Honeybee from the Early Pleistocene Teragi Group, of Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.
The Teragi Group comprises a series Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene lake deposits outcropping across eastern Tottori and northwestern Hyogo prefectures in southwestern Japan. The sedimentary deposits are interspersed with volcanic deposits, mostly from pyroclasic flows, the whole being contained within a volcanic collapse basin called the Teragi Cauldron. Fossils within this sequence come from the Haruki Mud, a series of sandstones and siltstones, with volcanic tuff layers, laid down between 2.8 and 2.2 million years ago. These deposits produce abundant Plant and Insect fossils, and although well known to fossil collectors, have not been extensively studied by scientists. An analysis of leaf fossils from the Haruki Mud suggests that the ancient lake was surrounded by temperate woodland.
As with many Insect groups, it is possible to classify Bees entirely upon the venation of their wings, which has been shown to be a good proxy for taxonomic relationships. Based upon this, Takahashi and Takahashi feel confident in assigning the new species to subgenus level, identifying it as Apis (Apis) aibai, where 'aibai' honours the Japanese palaeontologist Hiroaki Aiba, who has studied the Umigami site from which the new fossil comes, and described a species of Nymphalid Butterfly from that site, for his contributions to Earth science education through the use of fossil collection activities.
Apis (Apis) aibai is described from a single specimen, SOU-002, held in the collection of the Museum of Unique Insect Fossils, in the town of Shin’onsen in Hyogo Prefecture. It is a middle-sized worker Honeybee preserved as a compression fossil with no counterpart. This specimen is 9.81 mm in length, but part of the head is missing, so it was probably about 10 mm long in life.
Takahashi and Takahashi did not carry out a full phylogenetic analysis for Apis (Apis) aibai, but based upon its wing venation, they suggest that its closest known relative is probably Apis (Apis) nigrocincta, an extant species found in the Philippines and Indonesia. This suggests that the two species form a single clade (group of species with shared ancestry) which once had a wider distribution, including temperate Japan as well as the tropical regions of the Philippines and Indonesia. It has also previously been suggested that Apis (Apis) nigrocincta is the closest living relative of Apis cerana, the only native Honeybee species found in Japan today, suggesting that the three may form a single group.
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