#they’re called tarantula hawk wasps

[mythos321]

Hey uh what the hell do you mean xenomorphs basically already exists and are in my home state

[bootleg-nessie]

Rating the Accuracy of Animal Names:

(I keep updating this list so check back later)

Marine Iguana: 1/10. They don’t allow lizards in the military

Honey Badger: 1/10. It’s not even made out of honey

Horny toad: 0/10. First of all, this is a lizard. Second of all, I couldn’t find one that was willing to have sex with me so they must not actually be all that horny

Crabeater seal: 1/10. They don’t even eat crabs. Felt uncomfortable asking about the other kind but I’d guess probably not those either

Comb jellyfish: 4/10. Doesn’t even have hair

Hammerhead shark: 10/10. Stop killing hammerhead sharks to make hammers

Paper nautilus: 1/10. Paper would get too soggy

Red Panda: 2/10. Not a panda. More orange than red

Jellyfish: 0/10. Not even a fish, but if it were, jelly would be one of the worst things to be made out of

Electric eel: 5/10. Not an eel. Shocking, I know

Blue footed booby: 2/10. My disappointment is immeasurable. Turns out this lying sack of shit is a just a stupid BIRD

Spiny lumpsucker: 8/10. Apparently this fish is named because it has spines AND a suction cup, not because it sucks on spiny lumps

Pleasing fungus beetle: 2/10. Why would fungus be pleased by a beetle eating it? It just worked so hard to grow

Chicken turtle: 1/10. This is just a regular turtle, there are no chickens involved

Red lipped batfish: 8/10. Not a bat. Does have red lips. Also looks incredibly sexy with that makeup on

Aye aye: 10/10. Does in fact, have two eyes

Blobfish: 10/10 out of water, 1/10 in water. The blobfish gets a bad rap, it only looks like a blob because some dickhead pulled it out of its natural habitat at the bottom of the fucking ocean. You’d look pretty weird if you switched places with them too

Dik dik: 5/10 if male, 0/10 if female. This one’s pretty self explanatory

Mountain chicken: 0/10. THIS IS A FUCKING FROG. STOP NAMING ANIMALS AFTER CHICKENS!

Peacock: 0/10. It pees out of a cloaca, not a cock. Technically it doesn’t even pee either

Monarch butterfly 1/10. They aren’t even one of the species of insects that has a queen, let alone understands the concept of monarchism

Cockatiel: 0/10. They do not have teal cocks

Monkey slug caterpillars: 1/10. These are neither slugs nor monkeys, nor are they some kind of fucked up monkey/slug hybrid. Terrible name all around, the only part they got right was caterpillar

Robin: 5/10. It’s a shame this bird has to resort to thievery but we all have to put worms on the table somehow

Alligator snapping turtle: 1/10. This is not an alligator, nor does it even have the fingers to snap with

Ground squirrel: 5/10. Please don’t grind squirrels

Axolotl: 0/10. Doesn’t ask a lot. Doesn’t ask anything at all

Sea robin: 7/10 This is what happens when the land robin goes pro. This creepy fuck evolved little fingers just to steal things. Is this where fish fingers come from?

Tasmanian devil: 8/10. Much like the christian devil, cool name and way more chill than most people give them credit for. Statistically speaking, they’re far from the deadliest player on the board, but they do have the strongest bite force and won’t hesitate to use it if provoked

Water deer: 7/10. No. This is a meat deer

Star nosed mole: 7/10. Name is somewhat misleading, nose merely star shaped, and not a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace

Paddlefish: 3/10. Too narrow to effectively be used as a paddle

Shoebill stork: 1/10. Not made of real shoes. Doesn’t pay bills either

Great white shark: 8/10. I’m inclined to agree for the most part but who came up with the name, David Duke?

Bioko drill: 0/10. At least the hammerhead shark looks like a hammer, this stupid monkey doesn’t even remotely resemble a drill

Hippo Tang: 0/10. That’s a fish, and hippos don’t even drink Tang

Bluejay: 3/10. Not actually blue, it’s just a trick of the light. I bet their real name probably isn’t even Jay either

Satanic Nightjar: 4/10. Should be called “slightly evil looking bird” instead

Tarantula hawk wasp: 1/10. Not a tarantula. Not a hawk. Starting to question if it’s even a wasp

Goblin shark: 10/10? Ever seen their jaw move? They sure are gobblin’

Nudibranch: 5/10. The nude part is accurate but it’s a sea slug, not a tree branch. Not even sure how you could possibly make that mistake

Mongoose: 0/10. No mon, it’s not a goose

Bison: 7/10. I just googled it, bison have more gay sex than straight sex so calling them bi is actually pretty accurate. Points removed because there are bidaughters too

Ram: 10/10. They sure do!

Mandrill: 2/10. They could probably be taught to use drills but I couldn’t find any research on this

Silver fox: 1/10. Silver is way too heavy of an element for an animal to be made of

Mayfly: 9/10 Yeah, they might

Fin whale: 10/10. Yep, whales have fins. Glad we cleared that up

Macaroni penguin: 1/10. They don’t eat macaroni

Horseshoe crab: 0/10. Not a crab. Doesn’t wear horseshoes either

Fangtooth: 10/10. Objectively I have to give it a 10 but this is the stupidest fucking name on the whole list. What’s next, knucklefist? Titboob?

Milkfish 1/10. If I go to your house and you offer me fish milk I’m fucking leaving

Little penguin: 10/10. Telling it exactly like it is

Spider monkey: 1/10. Was expecting a monkey with 8 limbs. Let down once again

Glass frog: 2/10. Not actually made out of glass

Hummingbird: 1/10. They can’t even hum

Centipede: 3-35.4/10. Depends on the species, very few actually have 100 legs

Millipede: 0.8-8/10. They have 800 legs at the most

Sockeye salmon: 1/10. Socks would make terrible eyes

Furry lobster: 10/10, 11/10 if that’s a fursuit

Flying fish: 4/10. Merely glides

Sailfish: 3/10. Doesn’t actually know how to sail

Blanket octopus: 2/10. Octopuses make terrible blankets

Cane Toad: 2/10. Can walk just fine without a cane

[unexpectedgeese]

Wikipedia deep(ish) dive: BIG wasps

Well, cool is subjective, and there’s like a hundred thousand species of wasp, but here’s some I found that are pretty cool. Please be aware that I am not a bug expert, or a wasp expert, I just have google.

Also be aware that this is a followup to another post of wasp facts, if you want to go look for that.

ASIAN GIANT HORNET:

The Asian Giant Hornet is the world’s largest hornet, and the world’s largest social wasp. It’s about 2 inches long– or 1 ¾ inches, of you don’t count the stinger.

Yes, this is the hornet that was briefly thought to have ‘invaded’ north america. Don’t worry, there haven’t been any sighting in, like, a year.

While their venom is incredibly painful, and can be lethal if stung multiple times, a single hornet cannot kill you. But it can spray venom into your eyes in certain, currently unclear circumstances. Please don’t call them murder hornets :(

They actually tend to make their hives a lot lower to the ground. The Asian giant hornet will either live in rotten tree roots or in subterranean tunnels– either those they dig themselves, or old rodent tunnels.

Because these bad boys need to dig to make tunnels, they actually have a little black tooth for digging! You can see it in this image here:

An Image of the full bee below:

TARANTULA HAWK WASP

These ones are metal.

The Tarantula Hawk wasp lives pretty much everywhere other than antarctica. It’s about 2 ½ inches long. It is a parasitoid wasp. The females will paralyze an insect, drag it into their brood nest, and then lay a single egg on it. Once it hatches, the larva will eat the host alive.

The Tarantula Hawk Wasp does this to actual goddamn Tarantulas. Its sting is powerful enough to paralyze a tarantula.

Despite their incredibly intense reproduction cycle, the Tarantula Hawk Wasp’s diet consists primarily of nectar. They’re also quite hesitant to sting!

… But when they do, it hurts like hell. One researcher described the feeling as “immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream.” I can’t imagine willingly subjecting yourself to that for the sake of research, but I respect the lunatic who can.

And don’t worry! This guy was fine. The Hawk Wasp’s sting is completely harmless. If you don’t count emotional harm, that is.

AND they’re pretty to boot! Look at this thing:

[bettalbimarginata]

Wouldn’t call myself an expert, but I do know about cicada killers, and they are in fact harmless to humans. They need their venom for cicadas, and, as solitary wasps, they have no colony to protect. Males may aggressively buzz at you if you get too close to somewhere they don’t want you, but males can’t sting, and females will ignore you unless they’re checking if you have any cicadas. They might sting if grabbed, and that’s about it. Like tarantula hawks, they’re busy doing other things, with no need to be defensive like some other wasp species.

And yes. People get very loud and very upset if you try to say wasps are anything other than evil little monsters. Never mind that they’re native pollinators and provide pest control services.

Getting dog piled on Instagram for correcting misinformation wasn’t how I saw my week going but oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[infestedslime]

@natahposting I’m gonna start on the wasp and flower warframes soon and I’m making this post as a way to both get down all the ideas I had, as well as get any feedback/suggestions/ideas for them before I start. Anyone else who would like to leave suggestions/help out (mostly with the ability kit since I’m not great at those) is greatly appreciated. I’m gonna put this under a readmore since it’ll be pretty long

I’ll start off with name suggestions.

• the most obvious would be vespid for the wasp frame since it’s a cool word and something like marigold or eucalyptus for the flower frame since they work as names and are plants that wasps enjoy. However I feel like these the simplest names I could come up with and I’d like to do something more specific

• one with paper wasp influences could be called something similar sounding to polistinae, with the flower frame being called sedum or any of the aforementioned plants all of which paper wasps seem to like

• a tarantula hawk could be cool aesthetically but their scientific name, Pepsini, doesn’t really feel right to me. It would also be weird to base the frames off of desert flora and fauna given tau ceti f is meant to be pretty lush, or at least the part we would see is, so I don’t think it would match tonally

• velvet ants, or mutillidae would be another cool one. I couldn’t find any plants that they like but my search on them specifically mentioned they like big open sunny areal like cemeteries so maybe the plant frame could be based on a flower associated with graveyards or something? It’d be a little weird but it could be cool

• the cuckoo wasp, or chrysididae is another cool one, they’re a shiny blue green and like sunflowers, which means we could make the plant frame’s name something similar to helianthus. Worth noting I don’t think any of the scientific names here would make great names on their own but they’re good jumping off points to base a name on.

• normally id look to mythology or folklore for name ideas since that’s where warframe draws a lot of its names from, but I couldn’t really find amything. I’m sure there’s some stuff out there though so if anyone has suggestions I’d be happy to hear them!

The next thing I’d like to bring up is the ability kits. I’m not very good at writing abilities and I’m definitely not very good at balancing so I’m just gonna put some barebones suggestions for stuff here.

Flower frame

• ability 1 is an exalted arm canon that envelops their arm and launches sticky nectar, applying some sort of status and slowing enemies

• ability 2 causes a flower to bloom on an enemy, reducing their damage and healing any frame that kills them. Blooms have a chance to spread to nearby enemies, with a higher chance to spread to status affected enemies

• ability 3 places down small fields of flowers (up to 3) that heal allies over time and choke enemies with pollen (modified status similar to gas that causes enemies to stop and try to get it off, and which will exacerbate status effects already on enemies). Holding the ability will create one large area of flowers and revive all nearby downed allies, but will also put the ability on a long cooldown

• ability 4 is a big explosion of growth, with flowers attaching to allies giving health and damage bonuses and flowers attaching to enemies putting them to sleep, with enemies affected by status providing energy to nearby tenno based on how many status types they are affected by

•passive is taking less damage from crowd controlled enemies

Wasp frame

• ability 1 is an exalted fist weapon in the form of large stingers that deals mostly puncture and toxin with very high status and a unique stance designed to hit many enemies at once. deals extra damage for every enemy hit in one attack

•ability 2 initiates a grab attack on enemies who are then injected with high amounts of corrosive damage and are paralyzed in place

• ability 3 summons a swarm of technocyte wasps (which appear as indistinct clouds like the kiva on siphon missions) that hover around the player, coordinating with their attacks and adding puncture and viral damage. Enemies affected by cc get lingering clouds of insects that deal damage over time and count towards the first abilities enemies hit bonus

• ability 4 is a furious rush forward (closer to gauss’ mach rush than Excalibur’s slash dash), impaling all enemies in your way. For every enemy hit you will gain a damage bonus as well as an extension to said bonus after exiting the ability. Enemies affected by cc give twice the bonus and if the ability is activated with the exalted weapon active it lasts twice as long.

• passive gives a very small damage bonus for every stack of a status an enemy has

Again these are just quickly thought up ability sets and if anyone has suggestions for improvement, stats for the abilities, or even just an entirely different ability set they come up with please feel free to add them, these ones aren’t meant to be final, just some ideas for kits

The last thing, and the most important for me since I’ll be drawing them, is aesthetics. @natahposting this section is mainly aimed at you.

I’ll start with what has been mentioned thus far:

• plant frame is organic looking but still visibly sentient, and they also look like the more dangerous of the two. I’ve got a couple ideas for designs, but I probably won’t settle on anything until I know what plant to base them on.

•the wasp frame is a much more orokin looking frame, and looks more heavily armored. In one of the tags I think I saw possible mention of basing them off a samurai, which I think would be cool

• this is the main reason I made this post (although it doesn’t seem like it since I put more into the other sections than I originally intended to) and I basically just wanna know if there are any other elements I should integrate into the designs or specific aesthetic bits that would be cool

• also any ideas for signature weapon designs?

[meowthiroth-moved]

things i’m kinda surprised haven’t been made into pokemon yet:

jackalopes 

gazelles

hummingbirds

bettas (very popular pet, literally called ‘fighting fish’, tons of super different and pretty looking breeds that could be different forms or even entire different evolutions, potentially even with different types like the eeveelutions, blease i just want a betta pokemon)

stingray (i know we have mantine but that’s a manta ray, it’s totally different)

lionfish

cone snail (literally a snail that shoots POISON HARPOONS)

basilisk lizards (the ones that can run on water)

death’s head hawkmoth (ple a s e they’re literally goth moths with skulls on their backs and fluffy orange sixpacks and they go doot doot with their tongues. i know we have a lot of moths already but please gamefreak just give me this one im begging u)

desert rain frog/black rain frog (o hmygod PLEASE THEYRE SO ROUND AND ANGRY LOOKING HHHH I WILL DIE)

giraffe weevil (i mean come on just look at it)

tardigrade (literally one of the most adaptable species in the world, they’re also rly goofy-looking and cmon just imagine having a giant waterbear pokemon)

bobcat (cmon imagine all the fuckin bubsy memes. also i’m always happy to have more kitties)

serval (*slides gamefreak $20* please)

cassowary

sea urchin

prairie chicken (...blease.... they go boom boom)

katydid/grasshopper/locust (i mean... i GUESS we have kricketot/kricketune but that’s a cricket, it’s different ok)

tarantula hawk (ok but this thing is literally the PERFECT cool bug pokemon design idea. it’s a huge sickass lookin blue wasp that literally has one of the most painful stings known to man. and have u SEEN that stinger man holy SHIT that thing is long)

[sageinthegarden]

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2019/11/08/photo-of-the-day-tarantula-hawk/

Photo of the Day: Tarantula Hawk

Walked out of the house this morning to be greeted by what I thought was was a hummingbird, but instead turned out to be a Tarantula Hawk, which is actually a very large wasp. And by very large, I mean over three inches (7-1/2 cm) long and heavy enough to make the leaf it’s standing on sag almost to the ground.

Despite their size, they’re actually quite docile and eat nectar rather than other insects. They’re called Tarantula hawks because the females will sting a tarantula to paralyze it, then lay eggs on it. After they’ve hatched, they eat the spider alive (delightful, no?). Don’t usually see them this late in the year, but perhaps the warm weather has kept them out longer than usual.

I’m just glad I’m not a tarantula.

[nardacci-does-reblogs]

I got a warning sting from a Tarantula Hawk wasp one time, like not a full sting but it just basically brushed against my left index fingertip & my hand was on fire for like 20 mins, & the finger was swollen & tender for over a week afterward. So like don’t try to swat them away, because even a tiny little scratch can be bad.

They’re native to the Southwest US & are the state insect of NM [I’m positive that the Cazadors from Fallout New Vegas are based on the Tarantula Hawk & those things SUCK] so like, be careful if you see a large pitch black wasp with bright red-orange wings, either flying or crawling along the ground.

Oh & they’re called Tarantula Hawks because they’ll sting a tarantula, which immobilizes it with pain, for days, & then lay eggs on it. The eggs will hatch & eat the still-alive-but-paralyzed-with-agony tarantula. So unless you’re a poor tarantula, then don’t worry about eggs being laid in you.

[Watch Coyote Peterson’s sting video too, he just screams the whole time, it’s great. We do need to kinkshame Schmidt but at least he’s not as exhibitionist as Peterson, all putting his experiences online.]

BY A WHAT

[wahbegan]

So apparently, according to Justin Schmidt, you know the psycho who decided to get stung by every single member of hymenoptera for shits and giggles (actually to make an objective ranking of how painful each was), the 3 worst stings in the world of any bee, wasp, or ant are theeee drumrrrrrrrrollllllllll

#3 Tarantula Hawk

Which are definitely the #1 most evil though, laying eggs in paralyzed spiders and having their young eat their way out which is horrible and also inspired the Alien’s life cycle fun fact. Well that and H.R. Giger’s deepest nightmares and childhood trauma. But in terms of pain it’s very intense, according to Justin Schmidt, but only lasts a few minutes

#2 Warrior Wasp

Now these things are actually very pretty in a sort of blue iridescent way. Unfortunately, Schmidt said the pain from their sting is “torture”, lasts up to two hours, and he compared to being dipped in lava. Which makes him an idiot because being anywhere near lava would kill you before you even touched it, but i digress. Anyway they have a very noticeable threat display where the wasps all come out and start drumming on the nest with their asses and they really don’t wanna sting you, i mean they give you tons of advance warning so you really have to be a reprehensible dumbass to get one to do it, is the good news. Well, a reprehensible dumbass or kink lord Justin Schmidt.

And #1.....my girl.....The Bullet Ant

And i’ll give you three guesses as to why they’re called that. Schmidt himself made a whole new category for their venom, everyone else is stuck in categories 1-4, even the Tarantula Hawk and Warrior Wasp, but this beauty gets a 4 PLUS. Over-achiever. Anyway, he eschewed the “it feels like getting shot” analogy in favor of i think the much more evocative “feels like having a red-hot nail driven into your flesh”

Turns out Justin Schmidt is just a great big ole’ puss because the Satere-Mawe in Brazil sew the things into gloves and slip them onto young men’s hands when they want to become warriors, stingers facing in, at which point the glove has to be kept on for 5 minutes. They do this 20 times, which takes months or sometimes years because and here i quote hang on: “When finished, the boy's hand and part of his arm are temporarily paralyzed because of the ant venom, and he may shake uncontrollably for days.”

So you know just think of that next time you feel badass about anything you’ve ever done

Good news is the two worst ones are only found in Central and South America. Well good news for me, not for you if you live there. The Tarantula Hawk however can be found juuuust about anywhere. Like in your bed. Or right behind you.

[revengersepic-blog]

Colt, “Well boys, it looks like we’re in luck, not only is Antarctica the coldest place on earth, but this happens to be their winter season. There currently is no sunrise in Antarctica for the next 2 months and the average temperature is around -30 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Nick, “I was able to lock down transportation, but I feel like I spent most of my share of that reward money in the process. I also got us arctic gear, and confirmed that the prototype helmets that we’ve been running with are tested at -60 degrees Fahrenheit and our night vision will work fine at that temperature. The helmets even have temperature regulators built for both heat and cold.”

Dave, “That all sounds fine and dandy, but what’s the plan once we get there?”

Colt, “From what I can tell by looking at the thermal imaging photos that the NEA sent over, they were right about the 5 terrorists but they failed to mention that they’re sitting on a B61-12 bomb.

Nick, “So we’re talking Nuclear?”

Colt, “Right, the radius isn’t huge but they’ve been known to be extremely accurate. It hasn’t been activated, but we’re obviously dealing with some heavy hitters”

The three of them arrive at their take off destination, everything is loaded into the plane and wheels are up within a couple minutes. The flight is spent going over details and confirming everything they need will be there when they land. The pilot, the only other person on the plane, doesn’t seem to be privy to much so they do their best to keep their planning session between themselves.

As they get off the plane and step foot onto the South American pavement, they notice what looks to be a massive black helicopter on the other side of the small airport. A short bearded man in army fatigues approaches their plane, before Nick can get a word out Dave asks, ‘Nick, this guy with you?”

Nick, “Yup, that’s my guy.”

The man proceeds to shake all of their hands and assume that they all speak spanish, as he jumps into a 5 minute breakdown of their new prototype helicopter. Since Dave is fluent in spanish he does his best to translate.

Dave, “He says that it can make the trip to Antarctica no problem.”

“Now he says that it has enough firepower to hold the entire Argentine army at bay. It was developed in order to fly small military units into hostile environments and extract hostages from hot zones. He says it’s called the Tarantula Hawk”

Nick, “Ask him why”

Dave, “He says that the tarantula hawk is a spider wasp that hunts tarantulas. It’s sting is considered to be the second most painful insect sting in the world, plus it sounds scary”

Colt, “That’s awesome.”

Nick pays the guy as Colt and Dave make their way to the Tarantula Hawk, when they get to the chopper, they start looking it over and see all of the arctic gear they requested waiting for them inside. Colt start sifting through the gear, he pulls out some arctic parkas, and sees some thermal underwear in sealed bags marked BULLETPROOF.

Colt, “Is this stuff really bulletproof?”

Nick jogs up, “That’s what the man said, or at least that’s what I thought he said.”

Dave, “I overheard him as we were walking away, he said that it’s confirmed and tested bulletproof thermal underwear that the Russians were working on. A scientist in South America was able to perfect it. He threw that in because he says we’re walking into a death trap.”

Colt, “Well that’s reassuring. Dave, can you fly this thing or what?”

Dave (as he’s flipping switches from the pilot’s seat), “This T. Hawk is pretty intense, but I can fly it.”

Nick, “Good enough for me”

The blades begin to slice through the air  as the chopper grows louder and louder. The Tarantula Hawk utilizes a perpendicular rotor that allows it to fly at speeds over 200 mph, making the trip to Antarctica a little more tolerable. The team is slowly lifted into the air and with what feels like a gust of wind behind them, they shoot forward towards their destination.

Read more at www.RevengersEpic.com!

[telcontar-elessar]

Christ, the headline is “what to do if you’re bitten” by a tarantula hawk. Because, you know, wasps are known for their bites.

Tarantula hawks are super cool and underappreciated. They’re called tarantuala hawks because the females hunt spiders. Their super painful stings are used to paralyze the spider, and then they drag the spider - drag it! Along the ground! So cool - to a hole in the ground. There, she lays her eggs in the still-living spider, so her offspring have a fresh, living meal to eat when they hatch.

Insects are great

BY A WHAT

[1spooky-dad]

These guys are really common where I live, and they aren’t out to sting you, they are actually pretty chill! The only cases of people being stung by them I’ve heard about was from people who wanted to find out if the rating was right, and intentionally forced one to sting them (It’s a very true description)

They are called Tarantula hawk wasps cause the females will sting a tarantula to paralyze it, drag it into her home, which is a hole in the ground, and lay her eggs in it. When they hatch inside the (not dead, but paralyzed) tarantula, they eat it from the inside out.

They’re big, compared to other wasps, and actually very pretty! They’re a metallic blue with bright orange wings, and they really don’t care about things bigger than them, besides tarantulas.

BY A WHAT