Jurassic-era giant insect reappears outside Walmart in Arkansas

A Jurassic-era giant insect, which was missing from at least half a century in eastern North America, has been again spotted clinging to the Walmart big box's side in Arkansas.

The giant lacewing's identification as Polystoechotes punctata in Fayetteville, Arkansas sent scientists into raptures.

The re-appearance of a species which was present in abundance in the dinosaur age but was believed to have disappeared from North America's large swaths has led to speculations that the species' entire population may be hidden in Ozark mountains' remote areas.

Penn State’s insect identification lab's director Michael Skvarla found the giant lacewing. This week, in a report published on the university's website, he said that the discovery was made by him in 2012 when was studying as a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas.

“I remember it vividly, because I was walking into Walmart to get milk and I saw this huge insect on the side of the building,” said Skvarla.

“I thought it looked interesting, so I put it in my hand and did the rest of my shopping with it between my fingers. I got home, mounted it, and promptly forgot about it for almost a decade,” he added.

In a co-authored paper which was published recently in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, Skvarla stated that they had incorrectly labelled the specimen in his personal collection as an “antlion”, which is an insect with similar features.

WATCH | 40% of plants, animals at risk of extinction in the U.S.

The lacewing got the correct designation in late 2020 when Skvarla was teaching biodiversity to a Zoom class during the Covid lockdown.

As the teacher along with students stared at the microscopic images, they discovered that the specimen had been wrongly labelled.

“All of a sudden, out of nowhere, this incredible new record pops up,” Louis Nastasi, a student, told Adrienne Berard, who wrote the Penn State report.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE