Spiders and wasps are seen where I live in southwestern USA. The tarantula spider kills many common pests around our home, yet it is often thought dangerous. It is not! They are not aggressive or deadly. Any human harassing a tarantula spider can get bit although its venom seems to not be toxic to humans. I observed an unlucky tarantula spider on a hike last month. It is fascinating to see in action things one reads about in nature articles. More about the observation during my hike in a minute. Here is a sketch of a tarantula spider:
Let me introduce you to a tarantula hawk wasp. If you live in the desert regions of southwest USA, you may have seen this wasp. In my backyard it feeds on our milkweeds. This insect does have a powerful sting and if a human provokes it, you’ll be stung and it causes great pain. I read about their hunting style and life cycle, yet even more amazing is to see it in action. Here is a sketch of a tarantula hawk wasp:
A female tarantula hawk wasp mates with a male. Then it is time for the female to lay an egg, which she’ll do about 13 times in her approximately 13 month lifetime. The female wasp needs to capture a tarantula spider each time. (Males however only live 2 – 3 months.)
Once the female captures a tarantula, it will sting it, then inject venom and paralyze the spider. The female tarantula hawk wasp will drag the spider’s body to a burrow or nest. A wasp can drag spiders 8x their size! Amazing! I had never seen this until this hike. Also fascinating was observing the fact the tarantula hawk wasp walks backwards dragging the upside-down tarantula spider here! A photo I took trying to capture the wasp dragging the spider along:
Tarantula hawk wasps can fly 20 mph, but even on the ground this female was dragging the spider along quickly. Once in a burrow, the female wasp lays an egg on the paralyzed, still living, tarantula’s abdomen. When the larvae hatches, it will feed on the fluids and internal organs of the tarantula. It avoids the vital organs so the spider, its host, is alive longer. Eventually the larva pupates inside the tarantula spider’s carcass and emerges as an adult. The life cycle will continue.
I was unable to stay longer to see where the wasp’s burrow or nest was since my fellow hikers were ready to move on. However, it was a great observation for us to make while we were on our birding outing.
Reading about animal behavior is one thing, but seeing it in action is amazing! What have you observed? Wish to share? Please do.