Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Tarantula hawk

 
Animal Encyclopedia: Tarantula hawk
Home > Library > Animal Life > Animal Encyclopedia

Pepsis grossa

FAMILY

Pompilidae

TAXONOMY

Sphex grossa Fabritius, 1798, India (in error).

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Spider wasp, spider-hunting wasp; Spanish: San Jorge, avispón, matacaballos, halcón de las arañas.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Slender, with long, spiny legs. Body length is 0.94–2 in (24–51 mm). Body and legs are black with a mainly blue-green shine, often with a violet or copper tinge. Antennae are black, usually with orange on the tip of the last segment. Wings typically are black with quite strong blue-violet reflections, sometimes diffuse amber or orange, often with a dark border.

DISTRIBUTION

Southern United States and the West Indies south through Mexico to north-central Peru and the Guianas.

HABITAT

Rainforest to desert.

BEHAVIOR

Adults typically are found on flowers or on the ground in search of prey. The members of this genus make their nests in burrows in the ground and provision them exclusively with mygalomorph spiders (usually Theraphosidae, or tarantulas).

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Adults feed on nectar; larvae feed on spiders.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Adults capture and paralyze a spider and then prepare a cell for it in the ground, in rotten wood, or in a suitable crevice in rocks. An egg is laid on the victim; the spider is buried alive with the larva, which hatches within a few days. It pupates after it has consumed the spider.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not listed by the IUCN.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

This species of wasp is especially attracted to the flowers of Asclepias species (Asclepiadaceae), and it probably forms the largest group of pollinators. The female wasp's sting can be excruciatingly painful, but they are not known to attack humans without being provoked. It is difficult to assess the economic effect of their predation on spiders, because, in most cases, the economic significance of the spiders themselves is unknown.

Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Tarantula hawk
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
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
For the psychedelic rock band, see Tarantula Hawk (band).

The tarantula hawk is a species of spider wasp which hunts tarantulas as food for its larvae.

Up to two inches (50 mm) long with a blue-black body and bright rust-colored wings, tarantula hawks are 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 1/3 inch (7 mm) long, and delivers a sting which is rated among the most painful in the insect world.

The species is classified in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis, of the family Pompilidae in the insect Order Hymenoptera.

Contents

Hunting and feeding

A tarantula hawk dragging its prey

During the spiders's reproductive season male tarantulas are usually emaciated from ignoring food while searching for females. The tarantula hawks thus prefer female tarantulas and seek them in their burrows. They capture, sting, and paralyze the spider, then they either drag the spider back into her own burrow or transport their prey to a specially prepared nest where a single egg is laid on the spider’s body, and the entrance is covered. The wasp larva, upon hatching, begins to suck the juices from the still-living spider. After the larva grows a bit, it plunges into the spider's body and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep it fresh. The adult wasp emerges from the nest to continue the life cycle. Tarantula wasps are "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 the very highest temperatures. The male tarantula hawk does not hunt; instead, it feeds off the flowers of milkweeds, western soapberry trees, or mesquite trees.[1] The male tarantula hawk has a behavior called "hill-topping", where he sits atop tall plants and watches for females that are ready to reproduce.

A tarantula hawk digging a hole in the parking lot at Scotty's Castle, Death Valley National Park.
Tarantula hawk at Grant Ranch county park, near San Jose, California.

Geographical distribution

Worldwide distribution of tarantulas includes areas from India to Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas, where these predatory wasps are also likely to be found. Tarantula hawk species have been observed from as far north as Livermore, California, in the United States, and south as far as Argentina in South America, with at least 250 species living in South America. Several species of tarantula hawk 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 Pepsis formosa have metallic blue bodies, reddish antennae, which separates them from Pepsis thisbe (both species have bright orange wings that become transparent near the tip).

Sting

The tarantula hawk is relatively docile and rarely stings without provocation. The sting, particularly of Pepsis formosa, is among the most painful of any insect, but the intense pain only lasts for 3 minutes.[2] Commenting on his own experience, one researcher 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."[3] 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.

Notable references

The U.S. State of New Mexico chose the insect in 1989 to become its official state insect. The selection of the insect 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, Pepsis formosa).

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ 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. 
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ 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.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Animal Encyclopedia. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tarantula hawk".  Read more