Tarantula hawk

Cómo reconocerlo

• 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

Se confunde a menudo con: 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