Tarantula Hawk Victorious

Tarantula season at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area doesn’t just mean there are more arachnids out and about.  It also means Pepsis wasps, or tarantula hawks, will take advantage to aid in their reproduction.

Female wasps will sting the tarantula and paralyze it.  The wasp then drags the body back to a burrow, as you can see in this video taken at Keystone Thrust. There she’ll lay an egg inside the tarantula’s abdomen, and when the egg hatches , it will start eating the tarantula from the inside out ... while it’s still alive. 😧

If you want to learn more about  pepsis wasps, you can watch a video about them here: Tidbits under Ten -- Pepsis Wasps

🎥: Jon Prescott

[Video description: Pepsis wasp dragging a tarantula  twice its size  over rocks and through the desert]