Abstract
Aim We re‐evaluated the proposition based on the present‐day distribution of honey bees (genus A pis ) that their centre of origin resides in Asia, with subsequent migration and diversification into E urope and A sia. In our research, we considered the so‐far largely ignored fossils distributed through a variety of late P alaeogene ( O ligocene) and early Neogene ( M iocene) deposits, aiming at a synthesis of both present‐day and past honey bee distribution. Location Northern Hemisphere, A frica, S outheast A sia. Methods We examined the morphological diversity (also termed ‘disparity’) and affinities of the full living and fossil diversity of honey bees ranging from their earliest origins to the present day. Based on the fossil record and present‐day distribution of species, considering continental drift from the Oligocene until today, we have established an evolution and migration scenario for the genus A pis . Results The fossil record of A pis demonstrates a diversity that is predominantly European in origin, particularly among the most basal species of the genus. Honey bees exhibited a greater morphological disparity during the Oligocene and, particularly, the M iocene epochs, a time when the principal lineages were established. Contradicting earlier propositions, the geological models allowed a migration via western E urope to north‐western Africa during the M iocene, and the fossil record corroborates such a migration. Main conclusions From the full complement of available data, A pis apparently originated in Europe, spreading from there into A sia, A frica and N orth A merica, with subsequent diversification in the former two regions and extinction in the latter. The western honey bee, A pis mellifera , descended from E uropean ancestors that probably migrated from western E urope to A frica during the late M iocene and re‐immigrated into E urope during the Holocene and possibly preceding interglacials.