Flying spiderkiller from HongKong

[surfer]

Pepsis maybe?? My girlfriend was in China one month before and something fall from the sky....here is the gallery with this allien - some kind of pepsis maybe (8 cm in the body size)..... click

 

[Arachnophilist]

certainly like looks like one of those wasps! quite a beautiful wasp actually. though this may get moved to the Insect forum.. Im sure it would get answered faster and more accurately there

 

[C_Strike]

Quite a pretty T- killer, hehe

 

[Taceas]

Looks like a mud dauber we have around here, only ours lacks the yellow legs, but its that same irridescent blue/purple though.

I find them regularly during the summer scouring the yard looking for "grass spiders", and occasionally you'll find one dragging its catch back because its too heavy to carry.

They seal the immobilized spiders up in their mud nests and lay an egg on it. Helluva way to go. =P

 

[M.F.Bagaturov]

It is wasp used to known as "tarantula hawk" - the species belonging to the family Pompilidae. It is possibly a species of one of the genera - Pepsis or Hemipepsis, which have included the largest of these hymenopterans - as far as literature ref they can grow to 10 cm long.

 

[surfer]

Thank you very much for this informations

 

[M.F.Bagaturov]

Nothing for, David

If You need for additonal more detailed info - look for the next work (is available free in www)

Preliminary morphological analysis of relationships between
the spider wasp subfamilies (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae):
revisiting an old problem.
by JAMES P. PITTS, MARIUS S. WASBAUER & CAROL D. VON DOHLEN
IN: Zoologica Scripta, 35, 1, January 2006, pp63–84

 

[scottyk]

If she goes to Hong Kong regularly, and is into T's, she should check out the outdoor pet market in Mong Kok. Lots of huge southeast asian natives to be seen.

The prices are so low there that it's hard not to want to try to bring some home

 

[musihuto]

mmm... question: how does it avoid being bitten approaching the spider from the front?

thanks!
- munis

 

[M.F.Bagaturov]

Look here:
http://tarantulas.tropica.ru/files/multimedia/osa.wmv
Sorry for comments in russian... but You'd got a clue.