The Wallace’s giant bee is known for being the largest bee in the world, as it has a staggering 2½-inch wing span, but it had not been seen in the wild since 1981. The bee was discovered in Indonesia by American researcher Alfred Russell Wallace, who it is named after.

The bee has also long been the second species on the Search For Lost Species’ list of the top 25 “most wanted” species to be found.

Last month, researchers with the Global Wildlife Conservation launched an expedition to find the bee once and for all. Going into it, they did not have much hope of finding the bee, and it did not look like they would be successful until the last day of the expedition when they found a nest eight feet off the ground.

Photographer Clay Bolt had long hoped to be the first person to get a photo of the Wallace’s giant bee in the wild, so he climbed the tree to investigate the nest. When he reached it, he found a female Wallace’s bee that was as long as his thumb! He later described this as “the most remarkable thing I’d every laid my eyes on.”

The team waited for hours for the shy bee to fly out of her nest, and they were finally able to tickle her using a blade of grass. Experts are now rejoicing that this bee is not extinct after all!