Tarantula Hawk

[Ranitomeya]

Went out collecting in a canyon and there were dozens of tarantula hawks flying about. I caught a few and here's a male lapping up some sugar solution from a q-tip.
The largest female I captured is about twice his length and more than twice his mass. Each one of these beauties represents a battle fought and won by female tarantula hawk against a tarantula or some other very large spider.

 

[Hisserdude]

Wow, pretty! I would never be able to hold one of those though! :laugh:

 

[Ranitomeya]

I'd definitely avoid handling a female since they're capable of stinging even if they're usually reluctant to do so without provocation, but male hymenoptera have no stingers since stingers are modified ovipositors. It's quite safe to handle male wasps.
The large females have very long and sharp stingers that would be able to go quite deep. They're long enough that they'd go through your finger were they capable of going through nail and bone.

 

[BobGrill]

I'd definitely avoid handling a female since they're capable of stinging even if they're usually reluctant to do so without provocation, but male hymenoptera have no stingers since stingers are modified ovipositors. It's quite safe to handle male wasps.
The large females have very long and sharp stingers that would be able to go quite deep. They're long enough that they'd go through your finger were they capable of going through nail and bone.

Don't they have one of the most painful stings of any insect on the planet?

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[pannaking22]

Out of curiosity, how were you able to sex these guys?

 

[Hisserdude]

Wow, I never knew males had no sting! Thanks for that information!

 

[Smokehound714]

looks like Pepsis pallidolimbata

 

[edgeofthefreak]

You gonna breed them?


...wait, on second thought...

 

[Ranitomeya]

Tarantula hawks are said to have one of the most painful stings, but I've never experienced it. I believe it's supposed to be intense, but brief compared to the dull, but long-lasting sting of a honeybee.

They're quite easy to sex when they're at rest and aren't extending their antennae out in search of things. The females have thinner antennae that curl back and the males have thicker antennae that are held straight out.
You can see the male below with four females of varying size. There are both Hemipepsis and Pepsis species around and I haven't gone through the trouble of trying to identify whether the smaller females are Hemipepsis or just small females that were provisioned with juvenile tarantulas.


It'd be neat to see the complete life cycle of these, but it would unfortunately require that I sacrifice a tarantula. It's a little early for wandering native males and my pet tarantulas are off limits! :tongue:

 

[pannaking22]

Cool, thanks for the info!

 

[Ranitomeya]

I handled the female and fed her since she wasn't behaving defensively like she normally would.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Teased up a tarantula while on a hike, brought it home, and set the open vial with the tarantula in front of the largest tarantula hawk.

She immediately went at it and was grabbed by the tarantula. It was pretty surprising how aggressively the tarantula reacted to the tarantula hawk. It was quite docile when I teased it out of its burrow and put it into the vial during my hike.
Very loud crunching sounds could be heard as it began chewing on the her, but being grabbed by the tarantula seemed to put her right where she wanted to be because it collapsed, pooped itself, and became a limp pile of twitching legs a second later.
She came out from under the tarantula apparently unscathed and groomed herself for a moment before lapping up fluids from the tarantula's mouth.

I gave her a container of moist sand and she excavated a burrow before dragging the paralyzed tarantula into it, laying a single egg, and filling the burrow until there was just a chamber with the tarantula.
Here's the paralyzed tarantula with the egg after I dug it out of the burrow.

 

[MrCrackerpants]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Hisserdude]

Wow, hope you can successfully rear the larva to adulthood! Poor tarantula though.

 

[Cavedweller]

This is amazing! I never would have had the heart to sacrifice a tarantula to a pepsis wasp, but you (and that poor tarantula)are doing an invaluable service to the field of entomology. Man that egg is huge. I always assumed tarantula hawks only laid a few eggs due to the enormous investment they have to put in each one.

 

[edgeofthefreak]

This is amazing! I never would have had the heart to sacrifice a tarantula to a pepsis wasp, but you (and that poor tarantula)are doing an invaluable service to the field of entomology. Man that egg is huge. I always assumed tarantula hawks only laid a few eggs due to the enormous investment they have to put in each one.

That's what makes this so intriguing!! All that effort for just one egg. Though, Rani either got a pepsis wasp from The Matrix, or they can all get full on attacked, and survive simply by cleaning themselves after.

 

[Ranitomeya]

I saw a number of tarantula hawks where I was hiking, so despite the few tarantula burrows I was able to find in the easily accessible areas, I'm sure there's a healthy population of tarantulas in the area where I couldn't access.
My friends and I had caught about a dozen female tarantula hawks, so I'm weighing this one sacrifice against the many tarantulas each of those females would have captured.

The tarantula hawks I pinned had really smooth and tough, yet flexible exoskeletons. I'm sure that's how the females are able to handle getting attacked by a tarantula.
I've kept Bombus vosnesenskii before and I'd say the egg is about 50% bigger than a bumblebee egg. Hopefully it hatches and I can watch the larva develop.

 

[Ranitomeya]

The egg hatched five days after it was laid at around room temperature. Here's the little grub slowly sucking the life out of the paralyzed tarantula.

 

[MrCrackerpants]

Thanks! I am hoping you will continue to update this thread as the larva develops.

 

[The Snark]

There's two things here I find surprising.
First, the hawk taking the beating from the spider. But this demonstrates one animals general abilities, combining self defense and prey capture for food vs an animal that has it's entire 'focus', the survival of it's species, evolved into successful combat in that situation. IE if the T stood a reasonable chance of fighting off the hawk that species of wasp would probably be extinct by now.

The other thing is this very short time frame. 5 days from take down to maturing larvae. Again, highly specialized evolvement. I suspect if the time frame was much greater that larvae would be getting nothing but hyperactive bacteria dinners.