World’s largest bee species “rediscovered”

[Introversion]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/10/lost-and-found-indonesian-giant-bee-feared-extinct-ebay-aoe

An expedition to find Wallace’s giant bee in the wild led to its ‘rediscovery’ in Indonesia’s Maluku islands.

Entomologist Eli Wyman with the first rediscovered individual of Wallace’s giant bee. It was the first time the bee had been seen alive in the wild for nearly 40 years.

A “flying bulldog” is how conservation photographer Clay Bolt described it, while local people call it raja ofu, or the king of bees. Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto) is certainly a bee-hemoth. The world’s largest species of bee, it can grow to four times the size of a honeybee, with a wingspan of 64mm (2.5in). Such a giant should be hard to lose, but the incredibly rare bee, native to a cluster of Indonesian islands, was feared extinct for nearly 40 years, until Bolt and his colleagues “rediscovered” it in 2019.
….

Big boi!

 

[lizmonster]

nopenopenopenopenopenope

 

[pdblake]

We're gonna need a bigger slipper.

 

[Sage]

You know, I thought it meant biggest as in most populous (once upon a time). No, it meant “belongs on an episode of Doctor Who” type of biggest.

ETA: Lol, on my computer, the scale and perspective of that photograph is clearer. The bee is still comparatively big, but I realize it's in a centrifuge tube, and I know exactly how big those are. On my phone (looking at it in bright sunlight), the tube looked like it was between the guy's two hands, held much closer to him, making the scale look like the bee was basically the size of his head.

 

[Introversion]

nopenopenopenopenopenope

But note where the article says:

The bee does sting but, according to the only report I could find, it doesn’t hurt ‘too much’.”

Heh.

 

[SWest]

When we lived in North Jersey, I shopped a local garden center and while they were mass-spray-watering all the pots, the bumbles would get temporarily grounded on the plants (until they dried).

There was a gorgeous queen there that was giant sized. I remarked on her to the farmer, and she was very casual -- they were apparently common visitors, and in numbers that made them *yawn* to her. That was a mere few years just before bumblebees became seriously threatened.

A mega-bee is a thing of beauty, but not necessarily a joy forever.

-Westie, who's never been stung appreciating or even handling any of her solitary leafcutter bees

 

[frimble3]

Finally, we see what the Asian Giant Hornet eats when it's in Asia!