A massive insect that was removed from the Walmart storefront in Arkansas broke historic records. The Polystoechotes punctata, often known as the giant lacewing, is the species' first sighting in the state and the first of its kind to be recorded in eastern North America in more than 50 years.

The giant lacewing was once common throughout North America, but by the 1950s it mysteriously disappeared.

According to Michael Skvarla, head of Penn State's Insect Identification Lab, this finding shows that there may still be undiscovered remnant populations of this enormous insect from the Cretaceous period.

An Insect in Walmart

Skvarla found the specimen in 2012 when he went out to buy milk in Walmart, but he mistook it for something else, and it was not until he taught an online course based on his personal insect collection in 2020 that he realized what it really was.

It took the COVID-19 pandemic before the giant lacewing's true identity came to light. At Penn State, Skvarla was teaching Entomology 432: Insect Biodiversity and Evolution in the fall of 2020.

Skvarla tried to show the characteristics of a species he had previously referred to as an "antlion," but the traits did not exactly match those of the predatory insect resembling a dragonfly. Instead, he believed it resembled a lacewing.

The specimen was not an antlion, as Skvarla had misidentified it as since antlions have a wingspan of about 50 millimeters.  When the students started comparing features, a discovery was made during a Zoom meeting.

Skvarla and his associates examined the specimen's molecular DNA for confirmation. After determining the insect's true identity, he has since placed it in the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State. 

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Mystery Arises

According to Skvarla, the discovery of a giant lacewing in a populated area of Fayetteville, Arkansas, may give further information regarding biodiversity and the state of the environment. 

The loss of the giant lacewing from North America, he claimed, has several theories but mostly remains a mystery.

The extinction of the insect may have been caused by a variety of factors, including the control of forest fires in eastern North America, an increase in artificial light pollution and urbanization, and many more, according to experts.

There are numerous ecoregions in both eastern and western North America represented in the records, which cover a vast geographic area from Alaska to Panama. The species from Arkansas was the first discovered in eastern North America in more than 50 years, according to the map.

How the insect got onto the outside of a Walmart is still a mystery. Given that it was discovered at night on the side of a well-lit building, it was most likely drawn to the lights and may have flown at least a few hundred meters away from its starting point.

The research team believes that the new specimen is a member of a small, surviving population of giant lacewings in the eastern US that escaped extinction. 

The discovery was detailed in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington.

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