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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Global bee bioregions mirror those of other taxa despite a uniquely bimodal latitudinal diversity gradient

  • Léo Laborieux1,2
  • Lena Heinrich1
  • Matheus Januario1,2,3,4
  • Nathan J. Sanders1
  • Thais Vasconcelos1,5
  • Anshuman Swain1,2,6
6 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
  2. 2Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108
  3. 3Institute for Global Change Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
  4. 4Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108
  5. 5University of Michigan Herbarium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48108
  6. 6Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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Abstract

Bioregionalization, the partitioning of the globe into areas of biotic similarity, is one of nature’s most striking patterns, and highly congruent boundaries have been identified across plants, tetrapods, ants, and butterflies. However, these taxa also share a unimodal latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), raising the question of whether bioregionalization and the LDG are mechanistically coupled or instead arise from largely independent processes acting on different timescales. Bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) provide a natural test, their diversity peaking at mid-latitudes rather than in the tropics. Using range estimates for 3,370 species and a phylogenetic beta-diversity framework, we recover 21 bee bioregions nested within at least six major realms (Australasia, Indomalaya-Oceania, Nearctic, Neotropics, Palearctic, and Sub-Sahara) that closely align with those of other taxa despite bees’ atypical diversity gradient. We propose that bioregionalization and species richness are decoupled because they arise from distinct processes: the former reflects historical dispersal and evolutionary history, the latter local diversification, extinction, and environmental filtering. Our analysis provides a global biogeographic framework for future bee research and highlights the processes shaping the world‘s major biogeographic boundaries.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{laborieux2026global,
  title = {{Global bee bioregions mirror those of other taxa despite a uniquely bimodal latitudinal diversity gradient}},
  author = {Léo Laborieux and Lena Heinrich and Matheus Januario and Nathan J. Sanders and Thais Vasconcelos and Anshuman Swain},
  journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1073/pnas.2620558123},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2620558123},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Global bee bioregions mirror those of other taxa despite a uniquely bimodal latitudinal diversity gradient
AU  - Léo Laborieux
AU  - Lena Heinrich
AU  - Matheus Januario
AU  - Nathan J. Sanders
AU  - Thais Vasconcelos
AU  - Anshuman Swain
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/29
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO  - 10.1073/pnas.2620558123
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2620558123
AB  - Bioregionalization, the partitioning of the globe into areas of biotic similarity, is one of nature’s most striking patterns, and highly congruent boundaries have been identified across plants, tetrapods, ants, and butterflies. However, these taxa also share a unimodal latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), raising the question of whether bioregionalization and the LDG are mechanistically coupled or instead arise from largely independent processes acting on different timescales. Bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) provide a natural test, their diversity peaking at mid-latitudes rather than in the tropics. Using range estimates for 3,370 species and a phylogenetic beta-diversity framework, we recover 21 bee bioregions nested within at least six major realms (Australasia, Indomalaya-Oceania, Nearctic, Neotropics, Palearctic, and Sub-Sahara) that closely align with those of other taxa despite bees’ atypical diversity gradient. We propose that bioregionalization and species richness are decoupled because they arise from distinct processes: the former reflects historical dispersal and evolutionary history, the latter local diversification, extinction, and environmental filtering. Our analysis provides a global biogeographic framework for future bee research and highlights the processes shaping the world‘s major biogeographic boundaries.
SN  - 0027-8424
SN  - 1091-6490
ER  -