Wallace giant bee painted by the artist. According to foreign media reports, there is a very rare bee in the world called Wallace giant bee. It is the largest bee in the world. It is four times the size of ordinary bees and is as long as human thumb. Eli Weiman learned about the bee when he was an assistant at the American Museum of natural history. However, the bee seems to have disappeared since 1981, and people once feared that it had become extinct. "I just thought that one day I would go and find these bees myself. They are like unicorns in the bee world," Weiman said. "If you love bees as much as I do, it will be a wonderful adventure." In 2019, Wilman, together with natural history photographer clay BOT and two other researchers with the same enthusiasm, came to the North Maluku islands in Indonesia, where people last saw Wallace giant bees. They had planned to collect some bee samples and carry out genetic testing, but had to give up due to approval, so they changed their goal and only wanted to be the first person to observe Wallace giant bee in 38 years. Wallace giant bees like to settle in termite nests. So the expedition took a boat to hamahela, the largest island in the North Maluku archipelago, and met with the local village head to find out where they were most likely to build a cave. This is also the last place where Wallace giant bee appeared. Next, they trudged hard for five days, looking for beehives in the forest. According to Weiman, they "almost died of heatstroke". Weiman is observing a termite nest on a tree trunk with a hole shaped like an entrance. By this time, they all wanted to give up and just take some photos of birds. As a result, at the end of the fifth day, they were walking towards the car when they suddenly found a termite nest on the roadside. Although Weiman was exhausted, he managed to take a look. At first glance, Weiman didn't find anything special. But then he noticed a black spot on the ant nest and realized that it was actually an access hole. "My heart suddenly began to beat wildly," he recalled The hole was about 2.1 meters high from the ground, so he climbed up the tree and looked in. He found that there was gum on the passage in the cave, and Wallace giant bee would seal the entrance of the hive with gum to prevent termites from invading. A local guide then climbed up the tree to have a look, and soon built a platform with branches and vines for the expedition to observe. By this time, Weiman could clearly see the head and jaw of Wallace giant bee. His restless heart for nine years was finally satisfied. "We couldn't help hugging each other and clapping our hands," he said. "Originally, the heat and fatigue had exhausted me physically and mentally, but when I found them, I suddenly felt very relaxed." The news of the rediscovery of Wallace giant bee quickly spread all over the world. In the photo, Weiman and his colleagues held a bottle with a big smile in it. (they released it after taking the picture.) Weiman said that the Indonesian government had promised to conduct a comprehensive search for Wallace giant bee and would protect the creature. Weiman had hoped that local people would take ownership of Wallace giant bees and better protect them. However, the discussion on giant bees soon ended, and the momentum soon subsided. Photographer BOT is watching the termite nest carefully. To make matters worse, knowing that the giant bee still exists, the rare animal trading market, a dark corner of the online world, has been activated. Soon after Weiman returned to the United States, he saw someone selling Wallace giant bees for thousands of dollars on eBay, which was a great temptation to the subsistence farmers and fishermen in North Maluku. Wallace giant bee has thus become a rare thing, just like the endangered rhinoceros, and has become a cherished "trophy". This phenomenon occurs from time to time in the insect kingdom. In Germany, for example, a beetle named after Adolf Hitler was nearly extinct more than a decade ago due to high heat. Weiman wanted to emphasize the biological protection significance of Wallace giant bee, but inadvertently made private collectors aware of the value of the species, putting it in great danger. In this way, humans have created a way to destroy an insect species. In the mound, in the bark, or in the soil under our feet, there are millions of insect species that have not been found by us are gradually disappearing. If Wallace giant bee is not the world's largest bee and therefore becomes the "Holy Grail" pursued by western researchers, it may also die quietly because its living space is squeezed. BOT took the first picture of the existing Wallace giant bee. "We couldn't help hugging each other and clapping our hands," Weiman recalls But the most worrying thing about this "bee hunt" is that although people have been interested in its short-term land, it still doesn't help the species. "No one cares about them." "Even with the name of the world's largest bee, they still can't attract enough attention for us to protect or research," Weiman said gloomily (Wallace giant bee was listed as a "vulnerable species" by the International Union for conservation of nature in 2014, but the Indonesian government has not yet made such identification.) If the world's largest bee becomes a vulnerable species, we will inevitably be worried about many other unknown insect species. Generally speaking, the living condition of bees does cause our concern, but it is still a human centered way of thinking, because bees can help pollinate crops and are a pleasant scenery in summer gardens. If these problems are not solved, both humans and bees will be threatened. Wallace giant bee is the world's largest bee, with a pair of gardening scissor like jaws and about four times the size of ordinary European bees. But Wallace giant bees are useless in this regard. They will not fly around the local farmland to ensure that people have cucumbers and apples to eat. But like all insects, bees must have values that have nothing to do with humans. After all, insects have lived on earth for more than a thousand times as long as humans. They have created the world we live in in their own way and ensured that the world can operate stably even when there are too many humans. Wallace giant bee deserves a place on this planet. Not only that, but so are the daily beetles, crickets and moths. They are part of the kaleidoscope of life on earth and one of the only known forms of life in the universe. And we are undoubtedly a failed "arbitrator" and let them become extinct one by one. "People always talk about the economic value of species or which species we can eat, but insects have their own value," Weiman pointed out. "We should be the guardians of these magical species." Finally, Weiman added: "we are losing a great part of the earth's natural history and heritage." (Xinhua News Agency)