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#tarantula hawk
great-and-small · 2 years
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Tarantula: May I have a coke please
Waitress: All we have is Pepsis is that okay?
*Tarantula sweating nervously*: Y-you have what
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fallout-lou-begas · 8 months
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I'm watching a video of a tarantula hawk preying on a tarantula and it's really, really fascinating because the most immediately striking thing about it is how strange it is that the big, fearsome, powerful-looking tarantula barely even tries to fight back. It's almost uncanny: you watch it and you feel like something is wrong. The tarantula just stands there, fangs raised, but doesn't really attack the wasp that's circling around and waiting for its chance to sting the nerve center in its prey's weak underbelly. You want to scream at the tarantula to run away, at least. But it makes sense when you consider what each creature has evolved to do, and evolved to understand.
The tarantula looks strong, but it's a relatively fragile creature. It's an ambush hunter with very poor vision and senses its prey mostly through scent and vibration, and all of its other predators are large animals (coyotes, birds, etc.) that it barely stands a chance against anyway. Besides its irritating hairs, its sole offensive option is its bite, and though it can skitter pretty fast, it's grounded.
The tarantula hawk, on the other hand, is an extremely fast and extremely aggressive flying predator* with relatively good eyesight. They attack very quickly and precisely, exploiting the tarantula's natural defensive position to attack its underbelly. With a single sting in the right spot, it can completely paralyze its target; defensively, its hard exoskeleton protects it entirely from the tarantula's hairs and bite. It can outlast and outmaneuver the tarantula completely. As the video states, it's also possible that the tarantula hawk releases an odor during these encounters that disorients the tarantula, which relies on its scent to perceive its surroundings. (*despite necessarily preying upon tarantulas as part of its reproductive cycle, the tarantula is only actually eaten by the larva laid inside of it. The adult tarantula hawks are pollinators that only consume plant nectar.) It's as close to a perfect hard counter as you can get in the animal kingdom.
This kind of extremely specific evolutionary advantage-stacking is probably my favorite thing about wasps; it's amazing to me how thoroughly they will specialize into their environmental niche. You'd be tempted to call it cruel how completely the wasp counters the tarantula, but it's not really "cruel." The wasp just is. Nature just is.
Giant wasps are a semi-frequent monster concept in fictional settings, but if giant human-predating wasps really did exist, then they probably wouldn't just be these same wasps but super-sized and aggressive (consider the cazadores from Fallout: New Vegas). Instead, you have to apply the logic, not just copy it. Human-predating wasps would be evolved in contrast to what humans are capable of: they would have some kind of evolutionary circumvention against our vision, against our hearing, and possibly even against weaponry or shelter or social structure. And that sounds much scarier and cooler to me than "what if a bug was big." Just fun bug facts!
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cypherdecypher · 1 year
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Animal of the Day!
Tarantula Hawk (Pepsis grossa)
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(Photo by Steven Mlodinow)
Conservation Status- Unlisted
Habitat- Southern North America; Central America; South America
Size (Weight/Length)- 50 mm
Diet- Nectar; Fruit
Cool Facts- Tarantula wasps have the second most painful sting, just behind bullet ants. I guess we’re lucky they’re pretty shy by comparison. While both sexes have brilliant orange wings and metallic black bodies, females are significantly larger. Female tarantula hawks search for spiders, usually tarantulas, to be used as a living nursery. Encouraging the tarantula to rear onto its hind legs, the wasp will sting the spider on a nerve and cause paralysis. Dragging the spider into its burrow, the tarantula hawk lays a single egg, and covers the burrow entrance. The newly hatched larvae will then eat the spider, weave a cocoon, and emerge as a fully grown wasp.
Rating- 11/10 (Dangerous, brutal, easily defeated by roadrunners.)
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unbfacts · 6 months
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tarantula-hawk-wasp · 2 years
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Image ID: a simple digital drawing of a tarantula hawk wasp, Pepsis grossa, a wasp with a black body and orange wings and antennae, in the style of the full of milk kitten meme, with a label saying “full of pepsi” end ID.
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Desert wasps love autumn and desert milkweed flowers. Love seeing these peaceful creatures. They have never tried to attack me.
Top: male Tarantula Hawk wasp
Middle: mystery Thread-waisted Wasp
Bottom: Sand Wasp
(photos by S Suzuki-Martinez)
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Listening to Sting of the Wild by entomologist Justin O. Schmidt right now. I'm at the chapter about Tarantula Hawks, the wasp with one of the most painful stings in the insect kingdom. Intrigued by his description of their vibrant metallic hues, I had to google them to see what they look like:
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And I thought to myself, hmmm, this looks familiar...
Aha, I know where I've seen this before!
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I had to confirm with the Fallout wiki that I wasn't misremembering, and sure enough, it was Tarantula Hawk (Latin name Pepsinae) DNA that Dr. Borous spliced to create Cazadores in Old World Blues.
And if the sting of a regular, normal sized Tarantula Hawk is unbearably painful to the point that nobody who gets stung can retain motor control, I dread to think what a Cazadore sting must feel like.
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viaspiderz-artz · 8 months
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Artfight attack for @perfectpossumprincess 🐝🕷
this gal is super pretty! loved drawing her!
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r0ll-fizzlebeef · 9 months
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@uncle-mojave you'd be so proud of me. I'm currently doing Army shit at Fort Irwin (lovely Barstow, CA). I walk into the tactical accessories store this morning, and find 2 terrified young female employees staring at a light fixture, one of them wielding a fully extended Swiffer duster.
I asked if everything was okay, and they tell me that there's "some huge wasp thing up there and we can't reach it". I offer to help, and ended up shooing a young Tarantula Hawk out of the store.
I then gave a little class about how, while intimidating to see, the Tarantula Hawk is quite docile, and you really have to aggravate one to get it to sting you. The one girl is originally from Virginia, and had never seen one up close.
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sandpaperoctopi · 1 year
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Some of the wasps I saw in 2022 in no particular order (other than the first, all were in my backyard!)
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Diplolepis polita, Closterocerus sp., Chlorion aerarium, fairy wasp of some kind
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Anomalon sp., chalcidoid wasp, another chalcidoid wasp, flat wasp
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Vespula pensylvanica, Pepsis sp., ichneumonid wasp, Sceliphron caementarium
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another chalcidoid wasp, braconid wasps, Stigmus sp., Anastatus sp.
open to corrections on any IDs of course :)
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aquaspiderart · 11 months
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some new designs i put up both on redbubble and on teepublic! they're on sale on teepublic for the next two days too.
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attex · 1 year
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obsessed with that post .
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artsfromspace · 1 year
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Tarantula hawk
One of my resolutions for the new year is to get back into drawing creachers! This is the first one - actually I drew her last year, but never got around to posting her. I have plans for a whole wasp-themed set so this is ~only the beginning~
Anyway I definitely want to work on a variety of at least slightly odd/unpopular beasts so if you have suggestion feel free to throw them at me :D
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oatsssmeal · 1 year
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tarantula hawk ‘alien’ hunter gal
i say alien very loosely because ALL life in this universe is arthropodous, and is divided into 4 main groups
the entire lore and everything current takes place in the insect galaxy, meaning they’re the most common arthropod by far
there Was also an arachnid galaxy which was destroyed by a corrupted locust god thousands of years ago, and many arachnids were able to intergalactically relocate to the insect galaxy to avoid extinction (how they did this i do not know yet)
there is also a myriapod (centipede/millipede) galaxy, which was home to Emperor Kheilos, the main Big Bad of the universe who’s some giant ancient centipede guy
this galaxy is nearly completely destroyed by the same corrupted god, and because of the extent of Kheilos’ empire and technology, he was able to relocate to the insect galaxy as well
unfortunately he’s a bit of a bitch and dumped all his resources into keeping himself alive, so at this point he’s constantly hooked up to super advanced life support, which has let him live for hundreds of years
unfortunately pt.2, because he lost his entire empire to the destruction of the galaxy he used to rule, he is now the last remaining centipede alive Anywhere, and is starting to rebuild his empire with the insects he has available
before the last of the other centipedes died out, he was able to successfully capture the Wasp Queen, who he is using to rebuild his empire, seeing as how they’re the physically strongest social insect in this galaxy, and were the best candidate for a mindless swarm army
Kheilos’ new plan is to attempt to eradicate all life in the insect galaxy, as he believes he will be able to starve out the locust god and defeat it after it took his entire galactic empire from him
(this is cringe and i am Going to redo his lore because it sucks rn bc I came up with it in like An Afternoon one time and didn’t really give it a second thought)
anyways the 4th group of arthropods are giant crustacean based aliens that roam around space and kinda just eat whatever, and serve mostly as the ‘non sapient animal species’ of the galaxy seeing as how I have 0 other aliens so far
ANYWAYS anyways this tarantula hawk doesn’t even hunt crustacean she literally just tracks down powerful arachnid leaders and assassinates them because she’s racist or something idk
to her they’re essentially aliens seeing as how they came for a whole different galaxy and are so fundamentally different from insect in their body plan and capabilities
also wanted the Cool Funky Weapons in this universe to be electrified/plasma tipped blades that can act either as normal bladed weapons or heated blades that can cut through organic material better (NOT like a lightsaber it’s different these can’t cut through shit they’re just kinda hot and hurt more (i swear))
also also she wears a charm symbol thing of Vorastis as a sign of her determination to her hunting
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humblegrub · 2 years
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good news everyone! the tarantula hawk sting, previously rated as a Schmidt sting pain index level 4, is actually just a mild irritation :)
[Image ID: Write a poem about parasitoid spider wasps. The parasitoid spider wasp is a creature both terrible and beautiful. Its sting is fatal to spiders, but to us it is only annoying. This wasp is nature's perfect hunter, able to take down prey many times its size. With its long, sharp sting, it can pierce the toughest exoskeletons. The wasp's venom is a potent cocktail of neurotransmitters and enzymes. To the spider, it is a death sentence, but to us it is nothing more than a mild irritation. End Image ID.]
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coffeintheface · 1 year
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I know to much about bugs
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