National Geographic reports that “Wallace’s giant bee disappeared for more than a century. Now it’s back, and already being sold online by at least one collector. The World’s largest bee may also be the planet’s most elusive. First discovered in 1959 by the prominent scientist Alfred Russel Wallace, nobody could locate in again, and it was presumed extinct.
But Wallace’s giant bee was not gone. In 1981, an entomologist named Adam Messer searched and found it on three islands in Indonesia, on an archipelago called the North Moluccas. He collected a specimen and wrote about his discovery in 1984.
Now, for the first time, it has been photographed and filmed alive in the wild, by a team including nature photographer Clay Bolt. Meanwhile, in the last year, two specimens of the insect have been sold on eBay for thousands of dollars, raising fears about its continued survival”.
What is a Wallace bee?
The Wallace’s giant bee is as big as a human thumb and approximately 4 times larger than a European honey bee.
Megachile pluto, also known as Wallace’s giant bee or raja ofu/rotu ofu (king/queen of the bees in Indonesian), is a very large Indonesian resin bee. It is the largest known living bee species. It was believed to be extinct until several specimens were discovered in 1981; there were again no further confirmed sightings until two were collected and sold on eBay in 2018. A live female was found and filmed for the first time in 2019.
Wallace’s giant bee is a black resin bee with well-developed and large jaws. The species exhibits strong sexual dimorphism: females may reach a length of 38 mm (1.5 in), with a wingspan of 63.5 mm (2.5 in), but males only grow to about 23 mm (0.9 in) long. Only females have large jaws. M. pluto is believed to be the largest living bee species, and remains the largest extant bee species described. It is as long as an adult’s thumb. Wallace’s giant bee is easily distinguished from other bees due to its large size and jaws, but also a notable white band on the abdomen.
Bee sold for $9,100
“Many have become intrigued by the insect, including Nicolas Vereecken, an entomologist and ecologist at the University of Brussels. He studies bee diversity and was naturally interested to see the world’s largest. Over a decade ago, he sought out a specimen collected by Wallace himself, housed at Oxford Natural History Museum. That only made him want to learn more. Early last year, at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, he stumbled across a specimen collected in 1991 by a French researcher named Roch Desmier de Chenon. (The man was thought to be dead by many in France, but Vereecken found to his surprise and joy that de Chenon is alive, and living in Melbourne, Australia.)
The very same day, Vereecken discovered that a collector was selling a specimen of Megachile pluto online, on eBay—it eventually sold for $9,100. Later in 2018, the same collector sold another for a couple thousand dollars. The bee, it seemed, was very much still around. A group of researchers made a stunning “rediscovery” of the elusive critter and took the first photos and video of a living Wallace’s giant bee on January 25. The team — composed of natural history photographer Clay Bolt, entomologist Eli Wyman, behavioral ecologist Simon Robson and ornithologist Glenn Chilton — spent years studying the bee and slogged around in humid Indonesia forests for days before stumbling upon one.
The rediscovery has renewed hope that more of the region’s forests are home to the rare species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies this species as “vulnerable” due to mining and quarrying,” according to National Geographic.
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