Rare Jurassic-era insect found at Arkansas Walmart

It had long been avoiding Targets.

A gigantic insect from a species that once flourished in the age of the dinosaurs was found for the first time in decades on the façade of an Arkansas Walmart, renewing hope that there may be relic populations of the bug undiscovered in the Ozark Mountains.

The giant lacewing had never been spotted in the state, and hadn’t been seen in eastern North America in over 50 years until it was plucked up at a Fayetteville big box store by Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State’s Insect Identification Lab, according to a Monday press release from the university.

“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,” Skvarla said.

However, the significance of the 2012 finding was lost on the then-doctoral student at the University of Arkansas at the time.

“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.”

The Jurassic-era specimen was finally properly identified when Skvarla taught an online course based on his personal insect collection during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As his students followed along on Zoom with microscopes, Skvarla noticed that the bug which he’d previously thought was part of the antlion species group, looked more like a lacewing — which boasts wingspans of up to two inches.

“We were watching what Dr. Skvarla saw under his microscope and he’s talking about the features and then just kinda stops,” Codey Mathis, a doctoral candidate in entomology at Penn State, said.

“We all realized together that the insect was not what it was labeled and was in fact a super-rare giant lacewing. I still remember the feeling. It was so gratifying to know that the excitement doesn’t dim, the wonder isn’t lost. Here we were making a true discovery in the middle of an online lab course.”

“It was one of those experiences you don’t expect to have in a prerequisite lab course,” said Louis Nastasi, a doctoral candidate studying entomology at Penn State.

“Here we were, just looking at specimens to identify them and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this incredible new record pops up.”

Skvarla and other experts then performed molecular DNA analyses on the insect to confirm it was in fact a Polystoechotes punctata, or giant lacewing, the release said.

Extensive collection records of the species were analyzed, showing giant lacewings had been spotted from Alaska to Panama — but hadn’t been seen in the eastern part of the continent for half a century.

Skvarla said it remained a mystery how the bug ended up in Fayetteville, after it was presumed to have disappeared from the entire region.

One theory is that the species — who thrive in post-fire environments — had been driven away by better forest fire prevention in the area, along with urbanization, which had introduced non-native predators.

“Entomology can function as a leading indicator for ecology,” Skvarla said. “The fact that this insect was spotted in a region that it hasn’t been seen in over half a century tells us something more broadly about the environment.”

Skvarla also said the biodiversity hotspot Ozark Mountains were understudied compared to areas of similar biodiversity, such as the Southern Appalachians.

“This combination makes the region an ideal place for a large, showy insect to hide undetected,” wrote Skvarla and the co-author of his paper about the findings, J. Ray Fisher of the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University

Those theories don’t explained how the creature found its way to the exterior of a Walmart, but Skvarla reportedly hypothesized it was attracted to the lights on the side of the building.

“It could have been 100 years since it was even in this area — and it’s been years since it’s been spotted anywhere near it. The next closest place that they’ve been found was 1,200 miles away, so very unlikely it would have traveled that far.”

Nastasi, the doctoral candidate, said is was exciting to think that the insect represented a regional population that had avoided both extinction and detection.

“Discovery doesn’t always hold that same kind of grasp on people that maybe it did 100 years ago,” he said, according to the school.

“But a finding like this really highlights that even in a run-of-the-mill situation, there are still a tremendous number of discoveries to make about insects.”