LARGEST BEE
FILMED IN WILD
PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAY BOLTBehold the rare Megachile pluto,
Wallace’s giant bee. Seen here at roughly
life-size, it’s the world’s largest bee, with
a wingspan of 2.5 inches. Biologist Alfred
Russel Wallace discovered it in 1859 in
what’s now Indonesia, but it was feared
extinct until 1981—and had never been
photographed in the wild until January
2019, when it was spotted by a team that
included nature photographer Clay Bolt
and Princeton entomologist Eli Wyman.
Bolt says Wyman was overjoyed to find
the bee and hear its wings’ sound, a
“deep, slow thrum that you could almost
feel as well as hear.” —DOUGLAS MAINFemale bees collect tree
resin with their mandibles
and use it to build burrows
within arboreal termite
nests, where they raise
their young.