Kotthoff Ulrich, Wappler Torsten, Engel Michael S
Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut, Universität Hamburg, Bundesstraße 55, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany.
Zookeys. 2011 May 10(96):11-37. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.96.752.
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.
中新世的兰德克 Maar（德国西南部）是拥有丰富化石蜜蜂材料的少数地点之一。该动物群一直是早期作者密切研究的焦点，他们在该动物群中识别出多个物种或亚种。本文简要回顾了兰德克 Maar 的研究历史，并将这些化石与林奈蜜蜂属（蜜蜂亚科：蜜蜂族）的其他第三纪和现存物种放在一起进行背景分析。将兰德克 Maar 以前未记录的标本与早期系列进行比较，以评估观察到的变异情况。对具有代表性的现代和第三纪蜜蜂物种以及各种非蜜蜂族对照的前翅脉角进行了形态测量分析，以评估化石蜜蜂变异的分布情况。所得的树形图显示，中新世蜜蜂族的翅脉存在相当大的变异，但其他形态特征的渐变并未揭示出明显的单独物种模式。这表明中新世欧洲存在一个单一的、高度可变的物种。这种模式也支持了早期作者为兰德克 Maar 蜜蜂动物群提出的多个物种和亚种是无效的这一观点，因此所有这些都被认定为阿姆布鲁斯特蜜蜂（Apis armbrusteri Zeuner）。
