Spotted for first time in 40 years, behemoth bee that’s 1.5in long...

THE world’s largest bee – roughly the length of an adult’s thumb – has been seen for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Despite its huge size, no one had spotted Wallace’s giant bee – discovered in the 19th century by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace – in the wild since 1981, the Global Wildlife Conservation said.

The bee – pictured right alongside a European honeybee – measures around 4cm (1.5in) in length, with a wingspan of 6cm (2. in). Clay Bolt, the photographer who snapped it, said: ‘To actually see how beautiful and big the species is in life, to hear the sound of its giant wings … was just incredible.’

Nicknamed the ‘flying bulldog’, the bee lives in the Indonesian island region of North Moluccas. The Red List of Threatened Species lists it as ‘vulnerable’.