Being Green - 15 March 2019
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A GIANT BEE! (www.globalwildlife.org )
Entomologists exploring in Indonesia have found a giant honey-bee, or at least re-discovered it. After days & days of searching on the isolated islands of Indonesia scientists’ funded by GWC, Global Wildlife Conservation, found a female bee and photographed and videoed it. Now this is no ordinary bee. It’s the biggest bee in the world. Imagine a bee 5cm long with a concomitant wingspan. It has giant jaws like a stag beetle, and it’s jet black. You can imagine the loud thrumming buzz it makes too as it flies around the forests collecting sticky resins for its nest. The bees live together with tree termites, and line their nests with resins to keep inquisitive termites out.
But it’s a bee alright. It was thought to be extinct, but now its rediscovery on the North Moluccan Islands has revived hope for its survival, although it’s not on the CITES red list.
Entomologists exploring in Indonesia have found a giant honey-bee, or at least re-discovered it. After days & days of searching on the isolated islands of Indonesia scientists’ funded by GWC, Global Wildlife Conservation, found a female bee and photographed and videoed it. Now this is no ordinary bee. It’s the biggest bee in the world. Imagine a bee 5cm long with a concomitant wingspan. It has giant jaws like a stag beetle, and it’s jet black. You can imagine the loud thrumming buzz it makes too as it flies around the forests collecting sticky resins for its nest. The bees live together with tree termites, and line their nests with resins to keep inquisitive termites out.
But it’s a bee alright. It was thought to be extinct, but now its rediscovery on the North Moluccan Islands has revived hope for its survival, although it’s not on the CITES red list.
