In 2021, when he was passing through walmart from Arkansas to buy milk and books, a scientist spotted a giant insect inside the store. Upon locating the insect, he caught it in his hand and continued shopping. Michael Skvarla, director of the Insect Identification Laboratory, just couldn't imagine that it was a rare flyer from the Jurassic era. Keep reading and learn more.
Rare and unpretentious encounter
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The scientist said that he was walking through the aisles of Walmart with the insect between his fingers and forgot about it. Initially, he thought it was an insect of the antlion species.
Similar to a dragonfly, it looks fragile and has no attractive life; four wings, cracked veins and with brown spots.
However, in 2020, the story took an unexpected turn. The researcher was teaching an online class on insect evolution and biodiversity when it happened.
He was showing the species to the students, when he started to notice that it wasn't what he thought. The live class left the students attentive with the teacher's face in front of the facts.
A student said he was watching the teacher, when he suddenly stopped and everyone realized what it was about. The professor discovered that the species found at Walmart was a super-rare giant lacewing.
The insect's wingspan was the crucial point for him to identify. With 50 millimeters, the insect it was not an antlion.
The lacewing was only found in the 1950s, with the possibility of extinction and disappearance in North America. Some researchers believe that the disappearance could have been influenced by the amount of light pollution or by new predators.
The find inside Walmart, Arkansas, is a considerable milestone in a record that hasn't been made in 50 years. They came to believe, for example, that there may still be remnant populations of this species spread around the place and ready to be found.
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