Rare Giant Jurassic Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart

In 2012, entomologist Michael Skvarla stopped at a Walmart in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to pick up some milk. On his way, he spots an unusually large bug on the side of a building. So he snagged them, took them shopping, brought them home and rode them, thinking they were ants, some kind of flying insects. Years later, he discovered it was something very rare: an insect with an ancient history.

Penn State shared the story of Skvarla’s discovery on Monday. Skvarla is director of the university’s Insect Identification Laboratory. “The polystoychotus puntata or giant lace is the first of its kind recorded in eastern North America in more than 50 years – and the first record of this species ever in the state,” Pennsylvania said in a statement.

Skvarla corrected the initial misidentification while teaching a Zoom class in 2020 as he shared his personal collection of insects with students. Together, they worked on the new identifier, which was later confirmed by DNA analysis. The results appear in a study published late last year In Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington.

The researchers found Giant lace fossils dating back to About 165 million years ago during the Jurassic period. The Arkansas has a wingspan of about 2 inches (50 mm).

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Scientists aren’t sure why giant flankers disappeared from eastern North America. Predators, urbanization, or changes in insect forest ecology may have played a role. “This discovery indicates that there may be imagined populations of this large, charismatic insect that have yet to be discovered,” the study said. Basically, there could be hidden clusters of giant wings flying under the radar in Arkansas. The person on the side of the Walmart may have been drawn to the store’s lights at night.

This is a story of rediscovery, but it is also a story about the joys of science. Cody Mathis, an entomology doctoral student at Penn State, remembers the semester and the identification process, saying, “It was gratifying to know that the excitement hadn’t died down, and the wonder hadn’t been lost. Here we are making a real discovery in the middle of an online lab course.”

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