Female tarantula hawk wasps spend their lives daring death. These fearless hunters pick fights with large tarantulas-and usually win! The wasp jabs the arachnid with its extra-long sting. Before the tarantula knows what hit it, the spider is paralyzed and being prepped for dinner. The spider will be the food for the wasp's growing larvae.
The Sting: Tarantula hawks have some of the longest stings in the insect world, measuring up to a third of an inch. That may not sound like much, but these curved weapons are perfect for injecting venom into large spiders.
Lazy Boy: Adult male tarantula hawks have an easy life-and should probably have a different name from the females because they don't attack anything but flowers. While the females are out hunting tarantulas, the males just fly from plant to plant sipping nectar all day. Their only job is to mate.
Death Match[]
Pulling a spider to a burrow requires heavy lifting.
Female tarantula hawk wasps defy death in order to feed their young. They sniff out tarantulas-the biggest spiders in the world-and lure them out of their dens by plucking their silk tripwires. When a tarantula rears up to strike, the wasp is agile enough to avoid its fangs and quick enough to thrust its sting into the spider's belly before it can bite. The wasp injects the victim with venom that paralyzes it within seconds.
A Drag: Once the tarantula is paralyzed, the tarantula hawk has the daunting task of dragging the spider, which is several times the wasp's weight, into an underground burrow. The wasp sometimes pulls the paralyzed body back into the tarantula's own burrow and lays a single egg on it.
Staying Alive: When the egg hatches, the wasp larva begins to eat. The grub instinctually avoids dining on the spider's vital organs, keeping the victim alive for up to a month so its body doesn't rot and become inedible.
Dinner's Ready![]
- Ready to lay an egg, a female hawk wasp flies around in search of a tarantula. The wasp sees a male tarantula that's wandering around looking for a mate and dives in to attack. The spider puts up a fight, but the wasp eventually jabs it with its paralyzing sting.
- Far away from her own den, the wasp digs out a new burrow in the loose desert sand, using its sharp jaws as a shovel. Now the real work begins-the wasp drags the heavy spider across the ground and into the burrow so she can lay her next egg.
Trading Card[]
Trivia[]
- Tarantula hawk wasps are members of the pompilidae family, which is made up of Spider Wasps.