After carefully following the journal of a 19th century naturalist to a tiny Indonesian island, a team of researchers has rediscovered the world's largest bee. It's called the Megachile pluto, but also known as Wallace's giant bee, and lives in Indonesia. The men who found it just call it a "flying bulldog".
This species of bee has not been seen since 1981 but in January, scientists in search of lost species found the bee and took photos of it.
The Search for Lost Species is done by the Global Wildlife Conservation Initiative. They hope to find and protect species that have not been seen in the wild in decades.
Wildlife experts found the single live female living inside a termites' nest in a tree, more than two metres off the ground. Clay Bolt, a wildlife photographer, was the first to see the insect.
"It was absolutely breath-taking 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," said natural history photographer, Clay Bolt, who took the first photos and video of the species alive.
In 1858, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace whose journey crisscrossing the islands of what is now Indonesia in 1859 led to him co-developing the theory of evolution, discovered Wallace's giant bee on his last day exploring the tropical Indonesian island of Bacan.
The female Wallace's giant bee is about as long as an adult human's thumb and about four times larger than a European honeybee, she makes her nest in active arboreal (mud) termite mounds but beyond that not much is known about the insect.
Eli Wyman, bee expert and entomologist (a scientist who specialises in insects) at Princeton University said "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. My dream is to now use this rediscovery to elevate this bee to a symbol of conservation in this part of Indonesia, and a point of pride for the locals there."
The team spent days looking at dozens of termite mounds in hot and humid conditions, and sometimes during torrential downpours.
The species needs lowland forest for resin to use in it's nests as well as tree-dwelling termite nest to actually live in. According to scientists in Indonesia, forest destruction for farming, threatens the homes for this species and many others.
Wallace's giant bee is currently listed as vulnerable to extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
However, the international trade of this species is currently not restricted by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Environmental group, Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC), which has launched a worldwide hunt for "lost species", supported the trip to find the bee.
"By making the bee a world-famous flagship for conservation, we are confident that the species has a brighter future than if we just let it quietly be collected into oblivion," said Robin Moore.
In January, the group announced they had found more rare Bolivian frogs belonging to a species thought to be down to one male.
