Thursday

Tarantula Hawk

The tarantula hawk makes its home in the ground and can grow up to two inches long. It has a beautiful blue-black body and bright rust-colored wings. But don't let her good looks fool you... the bright coloring is designed by God to warn potential predators that they are dangerous. It is wise to heed this warning unless you are a roadrunner.

The stinger of a female tarantula hawk can be up to 1/3 inch long. These wasps are relatively docile, and rarely sting humans. That’s good because the sting is rated 2nd on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. 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." These wasps do live in the US.

The female wasp hunts female tarantulas which she captures, stings, and paralyzes. Then she drags the spider back into her own burrow, or to a specially prepared nest where she lays a single egg on the spider's body. The entrance is then covered, and she goes looking for another spider.

The hatched larva sucks juices from the still-living spider then enters the body to eat the organs. This is done systematically to keep the spider alive as long as possible. Later an adult wasp leaves the tarantula's body. This wasp is similar to the Jewel Roach Wasp and presents serious problems to atheistic evolution.

1 comment:

  1. For tarantula keeper. This creature is a nightmare. Goodluck, I'm in Thailand. No Tarantula hawk here.

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