Leioproctus barrydonovani, habitus of part. Scale bar – 1 mm.Image credit: M.S. Engel & U. Kaulfuss, doi: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a3.
Posted on 05/26/2025 10:42:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Paleontologists have described a new species of the extant bee genus Leioproctus from a fossil specimen found in southern New Zealand.
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 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 presence of Leioproctus barrydonovani in the Middle Miocene fauna of New Zealand poses some interesting ideas regarding the bee fauna of these islands...
Leioproctus barrydonovani inhabited broadleaf forests and may have visited flowers of the genus Pseudopanax, today common throughout New Zealand...
The discovery of Leioproctus barrydonovani is reported in a paper in the journal Zoosystema.
(Excerpt) Read more at sci.news ...
Leioproctus barrydonovani, habitus of part. Scale bar – 1 mm.Image credit: M.S. Engel & U. Kaulfuss, doi: 10.5252/zoosystema2025v47a3.
Wow! Its wings are still iridescent. Amazing!
“.. small, black, hairy B’s”
Was you ever bit by a dead bee?
(apropos of nothing)
Petrified tree stump deep within a coal mine (1918)r/SnapshotHistory
In 1918, coal miners were astonished to uncover a petrified tree stump entombed within a coal seam.r/mythical_rose
They look stumped.
Fairly intact, but not the bee’s knees.
Michael Caine recalls one of the worst films he did, The Swarm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z0LADOFZHc
When will they grab the DNA and clone this magnificent creature? It needs to be restored to its natural habitat that humans destroyed with carbon emissions and colonization.
“invasion of the bee girls”
I see what you did there
That’s one honey of a fossil!................
Who cut the tree down? It looks neatly sawed..................
Maybe Noah & his sons 😅
Snapped off (wind, tsunami), then weathered for some years, then buried.
bkmk
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