By Helen
Briggs BBC News, Science and Environment
22
February 2019
The
world's biggest bee has been re-discovered, after decades thought lost to
science.
The giant
bee - which is as long as an adult's thumb - was found on a little-explored
Indonesian island.
After
days of searching, wildlife experts found a single live female, which they
photographed and filmed.
Known as
Wallace's giant bee, the insect is named after the British naturalist and
explorer Alfred Russel Wallace, who described it in 1858.
Scientists
found several specimens in 1981 on three Indonesia islands. It has not been
seen alive since, although there was a report last year of two bee specimens
being offered for sale online.
In
January, a team followed in Wallace's footsteps on a journey through Indonesia
in an attempt to find and photograph the bee.
"It
was absolutely breathtaking to see this 'flying bulldog' of an insect that we
weren't sure existed anymore, to have real proof right there in front of us in
the wild," said natural history photographer, Clay Bolt, who took the
first photos and video of the species alive.
"To
actually see how beautiful and big the species is in life, to hear the sound of
its giant wings thrumming as it flew past my head, was just incredible. "
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