An international team of scientists and conservationists has announced the finding of what many consider to be the ‘holy grail’ of bee discoveries – Wallace’s giant bee.
The bee (Megachile pluto) is the world’s largest, with a wingspan more than six centimetres (2.5 inches). Despite its conspicuous size, the bee has been lost to science since 1981.
In January, a search team that set out to find and photograph Wallace's giant bee successfully rediscovered the species in the North Moluccas, an island group in Indonesia. The find resurrects hope that more of the region’s forests still harbour this very rare species.
A member of the team, Honorary Professor Simon Robson from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, said: “Amid such a well-documented global decline in insect diversity it’s wonderful to discover that this iconic species is still hanging on.”
Read more at University of Sydney
Image: This is Simon Robson, honorary professor of biology at the University of Sydney and Central Queensland University in Australia, with Wallace's giant bee (Megachile pluto). (Credit: © Clay Bolt : claybolt.com)