第 0981 號，共 1 402 號

Tarantula hawk

Pepsis grossa

名字的由來： The wasps are named after their prey: they hunt tarantula spiders, which gives them the name tarantula hawk.1

只是會痛會痛，但不會對你造成嚴重傷害。

蜜蜂、胡蜂和虎頭蜂

螫吃：肉

對人的危險: 疼痛可能會非常痛，但幾乎從來不會很嚴重。

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

分布在

Southern United States (as far north as Kansas), Mexico, Central America, northern South America and the Caribbean1

北美洲, 南美洲

首頁

Females hunt low over the ground, mainly around dusk and dawn to avoid the strong daytime sun. They look for spider burrows, using sight or scent, and may enter them to find prey.1

長度

2,4 cm 到 5,1 cm (0,9 in 到 2 in)1

最高速度

大約 45 km/h（28 mph）

飛行, 粗略估計

牠吃什麼？

Adults hunt tarantulas, almost always from the Theraphosidae family. The wasp stings the spider to paralyse it, and the wasp's larva then eats the paralysed spider.1

Tarantula hawk 的照片 — Tarantula hawk。照片：Niklas299。 CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

怎麼認出牠

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

常被誤認為： 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

毒液力量

螫

毒液從螫針出來。

牠的毒液有什麼作用？

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

牠對人有多危險？

對人的危險: 疼痛可能會非常痛，但幾乎從來不會很嚴重。

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

牠害怕時會做什麼？

Its black and orange colours, jerky behaviour and strong odour warn predators that it can sting.1

如果牠螫人

把蜜蜂的螫針刮掉，然後冷敷患處。
如果傷者呼吸困難、臉部或喉嚨腫脹，或覺得快要昏倒，這就是過敏急症：打緊急電話，如果傷者有腎上腺素自動注射筆，就使用它。

一定要先打緊急電話（112、000、911）。這是一般急救指引，不是醫療建議。急救基本知識

注意安全

絕對不要碰、抓或捉弄野生動物，就算是很小的動物，就算牠看起來在睡覺或已經死了也一樣。
給牠空間。如果遇到了，保持冷靜，慢慢往後退，讓牠自己離開。
如果被牠螫了：保持冷靜，保持不動，打緊急電話（112、000、911）或趕快去醫院。記住牠的樣子，有照片會很有幫助。

牠不是想來抓你。牠用毒液來捕捉食物或保護自己，而且牠更想躲起來。更多安全知識

在世界上的哪裡？

非洲亞洲歐洲北美洲南美洲澳洲與大洋洲

牠有多大？

牠有多長？

比你的小指頭還短可以在 8,4 秒內飛過一整座足球場

Tarantula hawk 跟「你」比起來有多大？

只是在你的瀏覽器裡做算術。什麼都不會儲存，也不會傳送到任何地方。

牠有多快？

一個正在衝刺的人 大約 37 km/h (23 mph)

Tarantula hawk 大約 45 km/h (28 mph)

市區裡的汽車 大約 50 km/h (31 mph)

值得知道

小知識

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

破解迷思

迷思： The tarantula hawk's sting is dangerous mainly because its venom is strongly poisonous.

真相： The venom itself is not very toxic. Its main defence is the intense pain of the sting.1

給毒液專家

學名: Pepsis grossa
類群: 蜜蜂、胡蜂和虎頭蜂
家人: Pompilidae2
排序: Hymenoptera
各大洲: 北美洲, 南美洲
寶寶: The female lays a single egg on a paralysed spider and seals it in a chamber, and the larva eats the spider.1
對人的危險: 2 / 5: 疼痛3