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Huge bee alert: Look at the world's largest bee and cower in fear

Researchers wondered if Wallace's Giant Bee had gone extinct. But it's definitely here.

Erin Carson Former Senior Writer
Erin Carson covered internet culture, online dating and the weird ways tech and science are changing your life.
Expertise Erin has been a tech reporter for almost 10 years. Her reporting has taken her from the Johnson Space Center to San Diego Comic-Con's famous Hall H. Credentials
  • She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.
Erin Carson
Honey Bee

Simon Robson, honorary professor of biology at the University of Sydney and Central Queensland University in Australia, with Wallace's giant bee.

Fanie Heymans

The world's largest bee has resurfaced after 38 years. 

In January, conservationists found Wallace's Giant Bee, or the Megachile pluto, on a group of Indonesian Islands known as the North Moluccas, the Global Wildlife Conservation reported Thursday. 

The Global Wildlife Conservation is a nonproft that's been searching for "lost" species, or species that might not actually be extinct, but haven't been seen in a decade or more. 

"It was absolutely breathtaking to see this 'flying bulldog' of an insect that we weren't sure existed anymore," Clay Bolt, the photographer who took the rediscovered bee's first photos, said in a statement. 

The report describes the bee as being about the size of an adult thumb, with a wingspan of about 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters). That means it's four times larger than the European honey bee

It is a very big boy and we're in awe of the size.