We’ve all seen that one bumblebee that is way bigger than the rest, and we think to ourselves, “how did that one get so gigantic?” Those bigger bumblebees have nothing on the world’s biggest bee! After 38 years, the world thought it was extinct, but it’s recently resurfaced and it is enormous!
The biggest bee in the world was thought to be extinct but was found alive for the first time in 38 years.
Wallace’s giant bee is known for being the largest bee in the world. After experts thought is was extinct for decades, it recently was found alive and it is Ginormous.
The Wallace’s giant bee has a 2½-inch wingspan. It was named after the American researcher, Alfred Russel Wallace, who discovered the massive bee in Indonesia.
Experts had presumed Wallace’s giant bee was extinct, until this past January, when a group of researchers found the rare bee alive and well.
Wallace’s giant bee also known as the “Nightmare Bee”, hadn’t been seen since 1981 and was feared to be completely extinct. The Seach for Lost Species has the Wallace’s giant bee listed as 2nd on a list of the 25 most wanted species to be found.
In January 2019, a team of researchers from the Global Wildlife Conservation made it their mission to find the bee if it was already extinct. They just need to know, it was time to solve the mystery once and for all.
The outcome wasn’t looking good, after searching and searching, they thought their fear of extinction might be a reality for the giant bee.
The researchers searched for a long time with no luck, like something out of a movie, it came down to the last day of searching. This was it, if they couldn’t find the giant bee today, the search would be over. In the final hours of the search, they found something! But was it the elusive Wallace’s giant bee?
8 feet off of the ground, they spotted a nest that looked like it could be for one of the giant bees. Photographer Clay Bolt, who had dreams of being the first to Photograph the bee in its natural habitat, made his way up the tree to investigate the nest.
There she was, a female Wallace’s giant bee as long as a grown man’s thumb, just resting in her nest.
Clay and the team of researchers couldn’t believe their eyes, right in front of them was a female Wallace’s giant be. They were the first humans to lay eyes on one in almost 4 decades!
“the most remarkable thing I’d ever laid my eyes on.” Photographer, Clay Bolt told Inside Edition.
Thanks to these researchers, people can rest easy knowing that the Wallace’s giant bee isn’t extinct and it’s still as big as ever! I can’t believe how big that thing is, watch the video below!
The biggest bee in the world was thought to be extinct – found alive for the first time in 38 years.
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