It is thought that bees originally evolved from hunting wasps which acquired a taste for nectar and decided to become vegetarians. Fossil evidence is sparse but bees probably appeared on the planet about the same time as flowering plants in the Cretaceous period, 146 to 74 million years ago.

The oldest known fossil bee, a stingless bee named Trigona prisca, was found in the Upper Cretaceous of New Jersey, U.S.A. and dates from 96 to 74 million years ago. It is indistinguishable from modern Trigona. The precursor of the honeybees may have been living about this time, but fossils of the true Apis type were first discovered in the Lower Miocene (22 to 25 million years ago) of Western Germany.