That viral photo of the "giant bee" turned out to be a zoomed in picture of a normal moth

My cousin sent me a Facebook post claiming someone found a bee the size of a human hand in Texas. I spent 15 minutes digging through entomology databases and contacting a bug expert on Twitter. Turns out the original photo was just a common white-lined sphinx moth shot from 2 inches away with a macro lens. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon fact-checking something that had a boring explanation?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_kelly9114d ago

Ngl that Texas story was already debunked on Reddit like two weeks ago.

the_cameron14d ago

Had a buddy who fell for that story, sent it to our group chat and everything (he was so embarrassed when we showed him the Reddit thread).

wilson.kelly10d ago

Did your cousin ever admit they were wrong? My friend Sarah spent like 2 hours trying to fact check a photo of a "mountain lion" in her backyard and it turned out to be someone's pet Maine Coon cat that got out. She was so mad at herself haha.