Wallace's giant bee
Wallace's giant bee is the biggest bee in the world, as long as a grown-up's thumb. It is black with a white band on its tummy, and the female has huge jaws. It lives on just a few islands in Indonesia and is very, very rare.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Wallace's giant bee compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its wings measure about 6 centimetres from tip to tip.
It builds its nest inside a termite nest high in a tree, lined with walls of sticky resin.
People thought it had died out, until six nests were found in 1981.
A living female was filmed for the very first time in 2019.
Its local name raja ofu means king of the bees.
Most asked questions about Wallace's giant bee
?What is the biggest bee in the world?
Wallace's giant bee. A female can be almost 4 centimetres long.
?Is Wallace's giant bee extinct?
No, but it is very rare. Its forest home is shrinking because of oil palm plantations.
?Where does Wallace's giant bee live?
Only on three islands in Indonesia: Bacan, Halmahera and Tidore.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Megachile pluto
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Megachilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Megachilidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Raja ofu, Giant mason bee
Where the facts come from
- Megachile pluto (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Naturalis Biodiversity Center. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Western honey bee
Buff-tailed bumblebee
Violet carpenter bee
Giant honey bee
Himalayan giant honey bee
Eastern honey bee
Giant blue morpho
Giraffe stag beetle
Giant pill millipede
Chan's megastick
Sabertooth longhorn beetle
Giant spiny stick insect.jpg){kind=link}