14.6-Million-Year-Old Bee Fossil Found in New Zealand – Sci.News

Paleontologists have described a new species of the extant bee genus Leioproctus from a fossil specimen found in southern New Zealand.Leioproctus barrydonovani, habitus of part. Scale bar – 1 mm. Image credit: M.S. Engel & U. Kaulfuss, doi: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a3.Named Leioproctus barrydonovani, the new species lived during the Middle Miocene epoch, some 14.6 million years ago.The ancient insect belongs to Leioproctus, a large genus within the plasterer bee family Colletidae.Extant Leioproctus species are small, black, hairy bees between 4 and 16 mm in length.They are found in Australasia and South America, and include the most common native bees in New Zealand.“The biota of New Zealand is a mosaic of ancient lineages interspersed among arrays of relative newcomers that have diversified since the Oligocene-Miocene,” said Dr. Michael Engel from the American Museum of Natural History and Dr. Uwe Kaulfuss from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.“Indeed, in many respects the fauna is typical of an island biota, reflective of lineages dispersing to the landmass at various times since its breakup from Gondwana c. 80 million years ago and then speciating.”“Some insect lineages have clearly thrived and evolved unique features within New Zealand, but many are conspicuously and enigmatically depauperate given the complexity and scale of the landscape, seemingly reflecting their late arrival to the islands,” they added.“Indeed, some prominent and complex biological interactions are poorly represented within the modern New Zealand fauna such as specialized insect pollinators, which are few in New Zealand and generalist flies are the dominant pollinators.”“In fact, although bees are the preeminent pollinators worldwide, their diversity in New Zealand is meagre, with only 42 species of which a mere 28 are endemic.”“This has led to a perception that bees are comparative newcomers to New Zealand and in the absence of any fossil record it has been challenging to determine the antiquity of the melittofauna.”Leioproctus barrydonovani, habitus of counterpart. Scale bar – 1 mm. Image credit: M.S. Engel & U. Kaulfuss, doi: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a3.Leioproctus barrydonovani is represented by an impression of a nearly complete bee in dorsal view.The specimen (total length of the body is 6.4 mm) was recovered from the Middle Miocene deposits of the Hindon Maar in Otago, southern New Zealand.“The single specimen is a compressed, articulated fossil bee preserved as part and counterpart in dark gray organic mudstone,” the paleontologists said.The presence of Leioproctus barrydonovani in the Middle Miocene fauna of New Zealand poses some interesting ideas regarding the bee fauna of these islands.“If the genus had invaded New Zealand before 14.6 million years ago, then it should have been sufficient time for the group to have more extensively diversified or to develop floral specializations with the endemic flora,” the researchers said.“The reality is, however, that there are merely 18 species of endemic Leioproctus, indicating that either there was a diversification that was subsequently winnowed considerably through extinction and driven by factors unknown, that some complex biotic processes or interactions prevented the lineage from more extensive speciation, or that the modern Leioproctus of New Zealand are unrelated to the fossil, at least subgenerically, and represent one or more later reintroductions between the mid-Miocene and Pleistocene.”“In fact, there are currently no data to indicate that the three groups of Leioproctus in New Zealand form a monophyletic group, and they themselves could represent multiple, younger invasions of the islands.”“If the fossil is representative of an early invasion of Leioproctus into New Zealand during or before the Middle Miocene, then one would hypothesize that a greater number of species would have developed across the complex landscape and climates of the islands.”Leioproctus barrydonovani inhabited broadleaf forests and may have visited flowers of the genus Pseudopanax, today common throughout New Zealand.“At least one extant species, Leioproctus pango, is known to collect pollen from flowers of Pseudopanax, a genus of small trees and shrubs common throughout New Zealand,” the scientists said.“Among 48 fossilized flowers collected at the Hindon Maar Complex all but two are Araliaceae flowers of an undescribed species of Pseudopanax.”“Although there is no direct evidence of the host plant(s) of Leioproctus barrydonovani (no pollen was found attached to the fossil), the abundance of flowers of Pseudopanax in the same deposit might indicate that this Miocene bee species visited Pseudopanax sp., probably among other plants.”“Given the fine detail of preservation, the potential to recover in situ pollen is great should additional and more complete bees be uncovered in future excavations.”“Direct evidence of such floral associations has been recorded from other important Lagerstätten, and the Hindon Maar Complex and nearby Foulden Maar have considerable potential for glimpses into insect-plant interactions during the Miocene of Zealandia.”The discovery of Leioproctus barrydonovani is reported in a paper in the journal Zoosystema._____M.S. Engel & U. Kaulfuss. 2025. A bee from the middle Miocene Hindon Maar of southern New Zealand (Hymenoptera, Colletidae). Zoosystema 47 (3): 43-49; doi: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a3

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