Tarantula hawk
The tarantula hawk is a very large wasp that hunts tarantulas, which are big hairy spiders. It lives from the southern United States through Mexico and Central America to northern South America, and also on the Caribbean islands. Its sting is among the most painful of any insect.1

Com reconèixer-lo
- Black and orange colours, with several colour forms: an orange-winged form, a black-winged form, and in northern South America a form with a dark wing base, dark amber patches and a pale wing tip1
- Females are 30–51 mm long; males are 24–40 mm long1
- Jerky movements and a strong odour1
- Males have 12 antennal segments, which separates them from other Pepsis species, which have 131
Sovint es confon amb: The black-winged form is hard to tell apart from Pepsis mexicana, but that species is always noticeably smaller. The robber fly Wyliea mydas copies the tarantula hawk's black body and bright orange wings, and makes stinging movements, but it cannot sting.1
Poder del verí
El verí surt per un fibló.
Què fa el seu verí?
Tarantula hawks produce large amounts of venom. A sting causes immediate, intense pain that is short-lived, and it is among the greatest pain recorded for any stinging insect. The venom itself is not very toxic, so its defence works almost entirely through pain.1
Com de perillós és per a les persones?
Perill per a les persones: DolorósPot fer molt de mal, però gairebé mai no és greu.Only females can sting. The sting is considered the second most painful of any insect sting, scoring 4.0 on the Schmidt sting pain index, compared with 4.0+ for the bullet ant.1
Què fa quan té por?
Its black and orange colours, jerky behaviour and strong odour warn predators that it can sting.1
Si pica
- Rasca el fibló de l'abella per treure'l i refreda la zona.
- Si a la persona li costa respirar, se li infla la cara o la gola, o sent que es mareja, és una emergència al·lèrgica: truca al número d'emergències i fes servir el seu autoinjector d'adrenalina si en té.
Truca sempre primer al número d'emergències (112, 000, 911). Això són pautes generals de primers auxilis, no consells mèdics. Primers auxilis bàsics
Estigues segur
- No toquis, atrapis ni molestis mai un animal salvatge, encara que sigui petit i encara que sembli adormit o mort.
- Deixa-li espai. Si en trobes un, mantén la calma, recula a poc a poc i deixa que segueixi el seu camí.
- Si te'n pica un: mantén la calma, no et moguis, truca al número d'emergències (112, 000, 911) o ves de pressa a un hospital. Recorda com era, una foto ajuda.
No va a per tu. Fa servir el verí per caçar o per defensar-se, i prefereix mil vegades amagar-se. Més sobre com estar segur
Que gran és?
Quant fa de llarg?
més curt que el teu dit petit
podria travessar volant un camp de futbol sencer en 8,4 segonsQue gran és Tarantula hawk comparat amb TU?
Només càlculs al teu navegador. No es desa ni s'envia res enlloc.
Com de ràpid va?
Dades
The female chooses the spider's size and sex for her eggs. Fertilised eggs go on large spiders and become females, and unfertilised eggs go on male spiders and become males.1
Roadrunners sometimes steal the tarantula from a wasp and leave the wasp unharmed. Others beat the wasp against the ground before eating it.1
The tarantula hawk is the state insect of New Mexico. Almost 10,000 schoolchildren voted for it, and it was made official by a law signed in 1989.1
Wasps of the genus Pepsis are important pollinators of milkweeds, which are poisonous to grazing livestock.1
Desmuntamites
Mite: The tarantula hawk's sting is dangerous mainly because its venom is strongly poisonous.
Veritat: The venom itself is not very toxic. Its main defence is the intense pain of the sting.1
Per a experts en verins
D'on surten les dades
- Pepsis grossa (Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0))
- Pepsis grossa (iNaturalist): noms i classificació.
- Venom Wiki: el nivell de perill, la mida típica i la velocitat estimada són nostres. Mira com els calculem: Com valorem el perill.
Cada dada d'aquesta pàgina té un número que porta a la seva font. Si ens hem equivocat en alguna cosa, perdona, som fans dels animals, no una revista científica. Escriu-nos a [email protected] i ho arreglarem.
Picades