#Tarantula hawk

[jakud]

The Pilot and her Strider

You can read the first two stories of Esther, park ranger and protector of kaiju, here:

[spiny-ant]

THE BADASS BUG BRACKET

ROUND 1, BRACKET 2

Vulture Bee (trigona hypogea) vs Tarantula Hawk (pepsis grossa)

Vulture bee propaganda: Bees are already cool but what about bees that eat flesh and make blood honey?

Tarantula Hawk propaganda: (none provided)

[persephonaae]

This summer, kick back with a nice refreshing pepsis :)

[fallout-lou-begas]

I'm watching a video of a tarantula hawk preying on a tarantula and it's really, really fascinating because the most immediately striking thing about it is how strange it is that the big, fearsome, powerful-looking tarantula barely even tries to fight back. It's almost uncanny: you watch it and you feel like something is wrong. The tarantula just stands there, fangs raised, but doesn't really attack the wasp that's circling around and waiting for its chance to sting the nerve center in its prey's weak underbelly. You want to scream at the tarantula to run away, at least. But it makes sense when you consider what each creature has evolved to do, and evolved to understand.

The tarantula looks strong, but it's a relatively fragile creature. It's an ambush hunter with very poor vision and senses its prey mostly through scent and vibration, and all of its other predators are large animals (coyotes, birds, etc.) that it barely stands a chance against anyway. Besides its irritating hairs, its sole offensive option is its bite, and though it can skitter pretty fast, it's grounded.

The tarantula hawk, on the other hand, is an extremely fast and extremely aggressive flying predator* with relatively good eyesight. They attack very quickly and precisely, exploiting the tarantula's natural defensive position to attack its underbelly. With a single sting in the right spot, it can completely paralyze its target; defensively, its hard exoskeleton protects it entirely from the tarantula's hairs and bite. It can outlast and outmaneuver the tarantula completely. As the video states, it's also possible that the tarantula hawk releases an odor during these encounters that disorients the tarantula, which relies on its scent to perceive its surroundings. (*despite necessarily preying upon tarantulas as part of its reproductive cycle, the tarantula is only actually eaten by the larva laid inside of it. The adult tarantula hawks are pollinators that only consume plant nectar.) It's as close to a perfect hard counter as you can get in the animal kingdom.

This kind of extremely specific evolutionary advantage-stacking is probably my favorite thing about wasps; it's amazing to me how thoroughly they will specialize into their environmental niche. You'd be tempted to call it cruel how completely the wasp counters the tarantula, but it's not really "cruel." The wasp just is. Nature just is.

Giant wasps are a semi-frequent monster concept in fictional settings, but if giant human-predating wasps really did exist, then they probably wouldn't just be these same wasps but super-sized and aggressive (consider the cazadores from Fallout: New Vegas). Instead, you have to apply the logic, not just copy it. Human-predating wasps would be evolved in contrast to what humans are capable of: they would have some kind of evolutionary circumvention against our vision, against our hearing, and possibly even against weaponry or shelter or social structure. And that sounds much scarier and cooler to me than "what if a bug was big." Just fun bug facts!

[iridiumurchin]

So I'm just gonna dump a bunch of photos I took when I went on a trip to my dads property a few weeks ago. (He lives in a tent in the middle of arizona.)

So anyway that's about everything. I didn't get to explore too much because I was sick the whole week. And before that. And still.

I wish I could have gotten better pictures but my phone is kinda old so.

[kubfoo]

i would go to forest

if this was the deer

if this was the rabbit

if this was the wolf

if this was the hawk

if this was the mole

and if this was the acorn!!

[h3xapod]

go fast 💥🏁

Angelo and his '74 DT250

[yourfavoritemenace]

°*•🐝» tarantula hawk stimboard !

🐝-🐝-🐝-🐝-🐝-🐝-🐝-🐝-🐝

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Tarantula Hawk (Pepsis grossa)

(Photo by Steven Mlodinow)

Conservation Status- Unlisted

Habitat- Southern North America; Central America; South America

Size (Weight/Length)- 50 mm

Diet- Nectar; Fruit

Cool Facts- Tarantula wasps have the second most painful sting, just behind bullet ants. I guess we’re lucky they’re pretty shy by comparison. While both sexes have brilliant orange wings and metallic black bodies, females are significantly larger. Female tarantula hawks search for spiders, usually tarantulas, to be used as a living nursery. Encouraging the tarantula to rear onto its hind legs, the wasp will sting the spider on a nerve and cause paralysis. Dragging the spider into its burrow, the tarantula hawk lays a single egg, and covers the burrow entrance. The newly hatched larvae will then eat the spider, weave a cocoon, and emerge as a fully grown wasp.

Rating- 11/10 (Dangerous, brutal, easily defeated by roadrunners.)

[dopscratch]

another oc post because yes

this is terri (based off of a tarantula hawk) and her only daughter fifla (based off of a firefly) who is a councilor which is essentially a species of bug women my friend made (same friend created and drew the big kayara, this was done on an aggie hence the extraneous bits. i'm sure you can discern my contributions from art style haha)

unlike most members of her species, terri has sons as well, all adopted from the streets (councilors are all female and typically consume the usually-human father after they no longer need him as well as abandon any male, human children they have).

she's extremely protective of her children and mildly paranoid, sometimes veering into helicopter mom territory (though it's somewhat warranted considering how murderous other councilors can be)

[jakud]

The rebuilt Tarantula Hawk 02, from my comic MODERN CARAPACE. Built to be more lithe, and more formidable in combat. Probably won’t be seen for a while, but excited to reveal it!

[spiny-ant]

THE BADASS BUG BRACKET

ROUND 2, BRACKET 1

African Giant Centipede (scolopendra gigantea) vs Tarantula Hawk (pepsis grossa)

African giant centipede propaganda: the largest species of centipede in the world, grows up to a foot long, sometimes eats snakes, sparks fear in even the most whimsical bug lovers, so awesome

Tarantula Hawk propaganda: (none provided)

[chaoticdesertdweller]

The female tarantula hawk wasp stings a tarantula between the legs, paralyzing it, and then drags the prey to a specially prepared burrow, where a single egg is laid on the spider's abdomen, and the burrow entrance is covered. The hatched larva will then consume the still living host.

Video footage courtesy of Big Bend National Park.

[chimerarachnid]

New World Tarantula-hawk Wasps; Genus Pepsis - Travis County, TX, USA

Pepsis (from Ancient Greek πέψι lit. pepsis meaning 'digestion, cooking') is a genus of spider wasps belonging to the family Pompilidae. Species within this genus are also called tarantula hawks, as they usually hunt tarantulas, similarly to many species in the genus Hemipepsis. These wasps are restricted to the Americas.

[duracellaaa]

My coolest bug sighting yet Can provide the full pics upon request, under the same license

[charring58]

#tarantulahawk is a spider wasp (Pompilidae) that preys on tarantulas. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis