Historical Biogeography of the Meliponini (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Apinae) of the Neotropical Region

The Meliponini have a pantropical distribution (Indo-Australia, the Neotropics and Africa-Madagascar) which includes continental disjunctions unique among the Apidae, revealing a complex history of vicariance events of great antiquity. The trait of disjunction by vicariance permits the inference that Meliponini possibly had their origin on the ancient Gondwanan continent and possess a minimum age near 100 million years (Camargo and Pedro 1992). The oldest known fossil of Meliponini is Cretotrigona prisca, from upper Cretaceous New Jersey—USA, c.a. 65–96 Ma (Michener and Grimaldi 1988a, b; Engel 2000).