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Tarantula hawk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the psychedelic rock band, see Tarantula Hawk (band).
Tarantula hawk

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Vespoidea
Family: Pompilidae
Subfamily: Pepsinae
Tribe: Pepsini
Genera
Pepsis
Hemipepsis
A tarantula hawk is a spider wasp which hunts tarantulas as food for its larvae. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis in the family Pompilidae (spider wasps).
The more familiar species are up to 5 cm (2 in) long, with blue-black bodies and bright, rust-colored wings (other species have black wings with blue highlights), making them among the largest of wasps. The coloring on their wings warns potential predators that they are dangerous (aposematism). Their long legs have hooked claws for grappling with their victims. The stinger of a female tarantula hawk can be up to 7 mm (1/3 in) long, and the sting is considered the second most painful insect sting in the world.
Contents [hide]
1 Behavior
2 Distribution
3 Sting
4 In Popular Culture
5 References
6 External links
Behavior [edit]

A tarantula hawk dragging its prey
The female tarantula hawk captures, stings, and paralyzes the spider, then either drags her prey back into her own burrow or transports it to a specially prepared nest, where a single egg is laid on the spider�s abdomen, and the entrance is covered. When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen, then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive. After several weeks, the larva pupates. Finally, the wasp becomes an adult, and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the life cycle. Tarantula wasps are also nectarivorous. The consumption of fermented fruit sometimes intoxicates them to the point that flight becomes difficult. While the wasps tend to be most active in daytime summer months, they tend to avoid high temperatures. The male tarantula hawk does not hunt; instead, it feeds off the flowers of milkweeds, western soapberry trees, or mesquite trees (females feed on these same plants, as well).[1] The male tarantula hawk has a behavior called hill-topping, where he sits atop tall plants and watches for passing females ready to reproduce.

A tarantula hawk digging a hole in the parking lot at Scotty's Castle, Death Valley National Park

Tarantula Hawk Wasp Hilltoping

Male tarantula hawk at Grant Ranch county park, near San Jose, California
Distribution [edit]

Worldwide distribution of tarantula hawks includes areas from India to Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Tarantula hawk species have been observed from as far north as Lakewood, Washington in the United States, and south as far as Argentina in South America, with at least 250 species living in South America.[2] Several species of tarantula hawks are found in the deserts of the southwestern United States, with Pepsis formosa and Pepsis thisbe being common. The two species are difficult to distinguish, but the majority of P. formosa have metallic blue bodies and reddish antennae, which separates them from P. thisbe (both species have bright orange wings that become transparent near the tip).

Sting [edit]

The victim is the orange-kneed tarantula, Costa Rica
The tarantula hawk is relatively docile and rarely stings without provocation. However, the sting, particularly of P. formosa, is among the most painful of any insect, though the intense pain only lasts about three minutes.[3] Commenting on his own experience, Justin Schmidt described the pain as "�immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[2] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce [and] shockingly electric".[4] Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few animals that can is the roadrunner. As many predatory animals avoid these wasps, many different insects are mimics, including various other wasps and bees (Mullerian mimics), as well as moths, flies (e.g., mydas flies), and beetles (e.g., Tragidion) (Batesian mimics).
In Popular Culture [edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2013)
The US state of New Mexico chose the insect in 1989 to become its official state insect. Its selection was prompted by a group of Edgewood, New Mexico, elementary school children doing research on states which had adopted state insects. They selected three insects as candidates, and mailed ballots to all schools for a state-wide election. The winner was the tarantula hawk wasp (specifically, P. formosa).
The Honeywell RQ-16 T-Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has been named after the tarantula hawk.
In the video game Fallout: New Vegas, the Tarantula Hawks have been mutated inside a research facility known as the Big MT into deadly new creatures called Cazadores, which means "hunters" in Spanish. The adult Cazador is approximately the size of an adult human, and very aggressive.
In one Calvin And Hobbes comic, Calvin tells his dad about renting a book at the local library, describing the process from the planting of the egg to the larva eating the spider, all while eating dinner, making his parents recoil in disgust.[5]
References [edit]

^ Steven J. Phillips, Patricia Wentworth Comus (eds.) (2000). A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert. University of California Press. pp. 464�466. ISBN 0-520-21980-5.
^ a b "Tarantula Hawks - DesertUSA". Retrieved 2010-07-26.
^ Conniff, Richard (2009-08-10). "Oh, Sting, Where Is Thy Death?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
^ Schmidt, J. O., Blum, M. S., and Overal, W. L. "Hemolytic activities of stinging insect venoms", Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology, 1:155�160, 1984.
^ Calvin and Hobbes, 1989/07/04 gocomics.com
External links [edit]

Wikispecies has information related to: Pepsis
Pterodattilo page on tarantula hawks
Close-up HD video clip of tarantula hawk dragging prey
Short video clip of tarantula hawk dragging prey
Video clip of tarantula hawk defeating a tarantula in battle
Video of fallout cazador, a video game take on a tarantula hawk
Calvin and Hobbes comic