Global stingless bee phylogeny supports ancient divergence, vicariance, and long distance dispersal

Abstract

Stingless bees (Meliponini) are one of only two highly eusocial bees, the other being the well studied honey bee (Apini). Unlike Apini, with only 11 species in the single genus Apis, stingless bees are a large and diverse taxon comprising some 60 genera, many of which are poorly known. This is the first attempt to infer a phylogeny of the group that includes the world fauna and extensive molecular data. Understanding the evolutionary relationships of these bees would provide a basis for behavioural studies within an evolutionary framework, illuminating the origins of complex social behaviour, such as the employment of dance and sound to communicate the location of food or shelter. In addition to a global phylogeny, we also provide estimates of divergence times and ancestral biogeograhic distributions of the major groups. Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses strongly support a principal division of Meliponini into Old and New World groups, with the Afrotropical+Indo-Malay/Australian clades comprising the sister group to the large Neotropical clade. The meliponine crown clade is inferred to be of late Gondwanan origin (approximately 80 Mya), undergoing radiations in the Afrotropical and Indo-Malayan/ Australasian regions, approximately 50-60 Mya. In the New World, major diversifications occurred approximately 30-40 Mya.

A molecular phylogeny of the stingless bee genus Melipona (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…Mardulyn, 2001;Cameron, 2007, 2010;Kawakita et al, 2008). In a recent study by Rasmussen and Cameron (2010), Melipona was recovered as sister to most Neotropical genera, except Celetrigona, Dolichotrigona, Trigonisca, and Leurotrigona. Although our study did not include these taxa, our results are congruent with their hypothesis about the placement of Melipona.…”

“…3). Since our phylogenetic sampling included divergent extant lineages within Apis (Raffiudin and Crozier, 2007), Euglossa (Ramírez et al, in press) and Neotropical Meliponini (Rasmussen and Cameron, 2010) we used fossil ages as minimum age constraints, even though in some cases lineage sampling was incomplete (e.g. Euglossa).…”

“…Melipona is also exclusively Neotropical, and its origin is not known (Rasmussen and Cameron, 2010). The few endemic species on islands in both the Lesser Antilles and Pacific Panama (Camargo and Pedro, 2007) indicate relicts of past mainland connections during Miocene times (Roubik and Camargo, unpublished data).…”

“…Although the genus has been the focus of behavioral, genetic, ecological, and pollination studies (Roubik, 2006), only partial phylogenetic analyses have been carried out to date (Rego, 1990;Costa et al, 2003;Fernandes-Salomão et al, 2005;Rasmussen and Cameron, 2010). The stingless bee genus Melipona is clustered within the Neotropical Meliponini (Rasmussen and Cameron, 2010), and its monophyly is well supported (Rego, 1990;Costa et al, 2003;Fernandes-Salomão et al, 2005).…”

“…The stingless bee genus Melipona is clustered within the Neotropical Meliponini (Rasmussen and Cameron, 2010), and its monophyly is well supported (Rego, 1990;Costa et al, 2003;Fernandes-Salomão et al, 2005). A recent global phylogenetic analysis of the entire tribe Meliponini supported a Miocene ($24 My) origin for Melipona, but only 20 of the 50 described species were sampled and the internal relationships were not well resolved (Rasmussen and Cameron, 2010).…”