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

Como recoñecelo
- 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
Adoita confundirse 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
Poder da pezoña
A pezoña sae por un ferrete.
Que fai a súa pezoña?
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
Que perigoso é para as persoas?
Perigo para as persoas: DolorosoPode doer moito, pero case nunca é grave.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
Que fai cando ten medo?
Its black and orange colours, jerky behaviour and strong odour warn predators that it can sting.1
Se pica
- Rasca para quitar o ferrete da abella e arrefría a zona.
- Se a persoa ten dificultade para respirar, a cara ou a gorxa inchadas, ou sente que se vai desmaiar, é unha emerxencia alérxica: chama ao teu número de emerxencias e usa o seu autoinxector de adrenalina se ten un.
Chama sempre primeiro ao teu número de emerxencias (112, 000, 911). Isto son consellos xerais de primeiros auxilios, non consello médico. Primeiros auxilios básicos
Mantente a salvo
- Nunca toques, collas nin molestes un animal salvaxe, aínda que sexa pequeno e aínda que pareza durmido ou morto.
- Déixalle espazo. Se atopas un, mantén a calma, recúa amodo e déixao ir polo seu camiño.
- Se un te pica: mantén a calma, non te movas, chama ao teu número de emerxencias (112, 000, 911) ou vai rápido a un hospital. Lembra como era, unha foto axuda.
Non vai a por ti. Usa a súa pezoña para cazar comida ou para defenderse, e prefire con moito agocharse. Máis sobre como estar a salvo
En que lugar do mundo?
Que tamaño ten?
Canto mide?
máis curto ca o teu dedo meniño
podería cruzar voando un campo de fútbol enteiro en 8,4 segundosQue tamaño ten Tarantula hawk comparado CONTIGO?
Só son contas no teu navegador. Non se garda nin se envía nada a ningures.
Que rápido é?
Datos
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
Desmontamitos
Mito: The tarantula hawk's sting is dangerous mainly because its venom is strongly poisonous.
Verdade: The venom itself is not very toxic. Its main defence is the intense pain of the sting.1
Para expertos en pezoñas
De onde veñen os datos
- Pepsis grossa (Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0))
- Pepsis grossa (iNaturalist): nomes e clasificación.
- Venom Wiki: o nivel de perigo, o tamaño típico e a velocidade estimada son nosos. Mira como os calculamos: Como valoramos o perigo.
Cada dato desta páxina ten un número que leva á súa fonte. Se nos equivocamos nalgo, sentímolo, somos fans dos animais, non unha revista científica. Dínolo en [email protected] e arranxarémolo.
Pica