Dubbed as the “world’s largest bee,” the Flying bulldog has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia, making it the first documented sighting of the insect in nearly 40 years, researchers said Thursday.
The flying bulldog has been discovered by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in the wild in the 19th century, according to a report by the Global Wildlife Conservation. Wallace nicknamed it the “flying bulldog,” because of its size that is roughly same size of a human thumb.
“To actually see how beautiful and big the species is in life, to hear the sound of its giant wings…was just incredible,” said Clay Bolt, a specialist bee photographer who snapped the bee.
Megachile pluto, the flying bulldog, lives in the Indonesian island region of North Moluccas. They were listed “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which means despite the number of its population, researchers still had a hard time studying them due to its remoteness as a species.
Researchers and scientists tried to look for the bee several times in their expeditions to Indonesia, but never sighted any.
There are current fears that several flora and fauna might be threatened, due to continuous deforestation and habitat loss.
“I hope this rediscovery will spark future research that will give us a deeper understanding of the life history of this very unique bee and inform any future efforts to protect it from extinction,” said Eli Wyman, an entomologist at Princeton University, according to AFP.
