A Thing of Nightmares - World's Largest Bee Has Been Rediscovered

The largest bee in the world, Wallace's giant bee, was thought to be extinct. The last time it was seen was in 1981. The huge bee has just been rediscovered on the Indonesian islands of North Moluccas.

This thing is horrifying. I'll fess up, I'm afraid of bees. I say my fear is because my dad is allergic to bee stings so you never know, I could have inherited that from him. I don't ever want to find out if I'm allergic or not! So, of course, I HATE that this giant bee was just rediscovered.

Wallace's giant bee is typically one and a half inches long, has a wingspan of two and a half inches, a tongue that's an inch long, and jaws like a beetle. NOPE!

Now if you're wondering why it's called Wallace's giant bee, it's because a guy named Alfred Russel Wallace first described this bee in 1858. Alfred was one of the people that helped Darwin develop the theory of evolution.

Clay Bolt photographed the first Wallace's giant bee that's been seen in 38 years. Thrillist reports that Clay said "'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. 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.'"

He called it a flying bulldog. I'm out, we're moving to another planet.

Take a look at a better photo of Wallace's giant bee HERE!

And here's a video about the bee from the Australian Academy of Science's YouTube: