What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Tarantula Hawk dispatches Tarantula

Posted by November 4th, 2007 at 12:00 am

Categories

Uncategorized

Tags

Tarantula Hawk vs. Tarantula
Dear What’s That Bug Folks,
First, I love your site, and recommend it to every natural history buff I encounter! I have to be careful not to spend TOO much time on here perusing all the amazing photos and the answers you provide. Second, I live in Southern California on the San Diego/Riverside County line and a few weeks ago we happened to spot our first tarantula here so I ran to get the camera. I was very excited until a very large Tarantula Hawk buzzed onto the scene. We realized that it was too late to save this spider as the wasp had already stung and paralyzed him. I got photos of the wasp as she drug the spider down one slope, across the driveway, and down another slope into a hole she had already discovered or dug. My husband reluctantly agreed to use his foot for scale in the first photo, but that was before I told him that pepsis wasp stings were reportedly very painful! Thanks for such a great bug resource,
cindy m.
San Diego CA

tarantula hawk prey cindy Tarantula Hawk dispatches Tarantulatarantula hawk prey foot Tarantula Hawk dispatches Tarantula

Hi Cindy,
As far as photographs on our site go, this series has to rank in the uppermost percentile. Thank you so much for submitting your awesome Food Chain images of a Tarantula Hawk securing a meal for her progeny.

tarantula hawk prey cindy 2 Tarantula Hawk dispatches Tarantula

Related Posts

 

Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1

  1. From Spider Wasp paralyzes Cane Spider in Hawaii | What's That Bug? on 03 Oct 2010 at 2:20 am

    [...] Spider Wasps are in the family Pompilidae (see bugGuide), which includes such species as the  Tarantula Hawks in the North American Southwest, and the beautifully colored Spider Wasps from Australia.  We found a photo on the University of [...]

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.