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A 2012 trip to a Fayetteville, Arkansas, Walmart to pick up some milk turned out to be one for the history books. A giant bug that stopped a scientist in his tracks as he walked into the store and he ended up taking home turned out to be a rare Jurassic-era flying insect.
Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State University's Insect Identification Lab, found the mysterious bug – an experience that he says he remembers "vividly."
"I was walking into Walmart to get milk and I saw this huge insect on the side of the building," he said in a press release from Penn State. "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."
Skvarla originally thought the bug he had plucked from the Walmart's exterior was an antlion. These bugs, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, "look like fragile, drab damselflies, with an elongated body, four intricately veined wings mottled with browns and black, and clubbed or curved antennae about as long as the combined head and thorax."
www.cbsnews.com
Michael Skvarla, director of Penn State University's Insect Identification Lab, found the mysterious bug – an experience that he says he remembers "vividly."
"I was walking into Walmart to get milk and I saw this huge insect on the side of the building," he said in a press release from Penn State. "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."
Skvarla originally thought the bug he had plucked from the Walmart's exterior was an antlion. These bugs, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, "look like fragile, drab damselflies, with an elongated body, four intricately veined wings mottled with browns and black, and clubbed or curved antennae about as long as the combined head and thorax."
Giant flying bug found at Arkansas Walmart turns out to be "super-rare" Jurassic-era insect
The giant bug was found during a trip to Walmart in 2012: "I put it in my hand and did the rest of my shopping with it between my fingers. I got home...and promptly forgot about it for almost a decade."
www.cbsnews.com
