The world’s largest bee has resurfaced after 38 years.
In January, conservationists found Wallace’s Giant Bee, or the Megachile pluto, on a group of Indonesian Islands known as the North Moluccas, according to the Global Wildlife Conservation on Thursday.
The Global Wildlife Conservation is a nonproft that’s been searching for “lost” species, or species that might not actually be extinct, but haven’t been seen in a decade or more.
“It was absolutely breathtaking to see this ‘flying bulldog’ of an insect that we weren’t sure existed anymore,” Clay Bolt, the photographer who took the rediscovered bee’s first photos, said in a statement.
The report describes the bee as being about the size of an adult thumb, with a wingspan of about 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters). That means it’s four times larger than the European honey bee.
It is a very big boy and we’re in awe of the size.