A giant insect found on the exterior of a Walmart big-box store in Arkansas has been identified as Polystoechotes punctate that was abundant in the age of dinosaurs. Also known as giant lacewing, the insect vanished in the 1950s from North America, but the latest discovery has stunned the scientists. They now believe that there may be an entire population tucked away in the remote parts of the Ozark mountains. The insect was discovered by Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State's insect identification lab, in 2012.
"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," he said in a report published on the university's website this week.
"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," said Skvarla.
The specimen was initially labelled as antlion, but during a class Skvarla was taking in 2020, he and students realised the labelling is not correct.
"It was one of those experiences you don't expect to have in a prerequisite lab course. Here we were, just looking at specimens to identify them and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this incredible new record pops up," Louis Nastasi, one of the students who attended the class, said
Scientists are still trying to find out how the insect arrived on the exterior of a Walmart store. There are several theories but they will conduct more research to arrive at a conclusion.
CNN said the giant lacewing has now become part of the Frost Entomological Museum's collection at Penn State.
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