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  • Home
  • About iDigBio and the AR Collection Card Project
  • ARPEO Project
  • PROJECT REPORT 2022
  • Macrofungi: The Daisy Earthstar
    • New England Vascular Plants: The Cardinal Flower
    • Take a Closer Look: Reindeer moss
    • Take a Closer Look: Daisy Earthstars
  • The Consortia of North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Greygreen Reindeer Lichen
    • Keys to the Cabinet: SE Plants: The White-topped Pitcher Plant
  • Invertnet Collection Network: The Thorn Bug
    • Take a Closer Look: Thorn Bug Treehopper
  • Paleoniches: Brachiopods
  • Ammonite
  • iDigBio: Channel Catfish
  • Great Lakes Invasive Network: Zebra mussel
  • Tri-Trophic Thematic Collection Network: Stink Bug Parasitoid
  • Macroalgal: Elk Kelp
  • Insect Fossils: Tsetse Fly
  • SCAN: Earth-boring Scarab Beetle
  • InvertEBase: Carolina Mantis
  • EPICC: Fossil Crab
  • Animal Communication: Ruby-throated Hummingbird
  • Poweshiek Skipperling
  • RINGTAIL
  • Tarantula Hawk
    • Take a Closer Look: at the Tarantula Hawk
  • Sonoran Mantid
  • California Leaf-nosed Bat
    • Take a Closer Look: Bat Wings
  • Pipevine Swallowtail
    • Plants to attract Pipevine Swallowtails
  • Desert Hairy Scorpion
  • Gila Monster
  • Ocotillo
  • California Poppy
  • Anna's hummingbird
    • Plants to attract Hummingbirds
  • Monarch
    • Plants to attract Monarchs
  • Bumblebee
    • Plants to Attract Bumblebees
  • White-nosed coati
  • Asian Long-horned beetle
    • ALB Life Cycle
  • Learning Resources
    • Latitude and Longitude Game
  • Special Thanks
  • Give Us Your Feedback!
  • Contact Us
  • Specimen Cards
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • TEST page
  • Human Evolution lab
  • Skull 8

TARANTULA HAWK: Did you know?

Click on link to download card
​tarantula_hawk.pdf
​Pepsis thisbe



Tarantula Hawk Wasp by Libraries of Life on Sketchfab


​Tarantula hawks, or Pepsis Wasps are amazing creatures with very interesting stories! Here are some fun facts about them.
​          
            Tarantula hawks are actually a wasp. They are in the order Hymenopetra, which also includes bees and ants. However, wasps are a different family from bees, and you can tell them apart because bees are usually harrier, have shorter lets, and have thicker bodies. Wasps have a thin “waist”, longer legs, and much less hair.
            Tarantula hawks are solitary, meaning that they do not live in groups. There are more than 12 different species living in the Sonoran Desert. We have at least 2 different species living in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The most common one is Pepsis thisbe, which has bright orange wings.
            Tarantula hawks get their name because when the females are ready to lay an egg, they seek out a tarantula spider and use the venom in their stinger to paralyze it. After that they drag the paralyzed tarantula to a hole in the ground, and lay a single egg in the spider’s abdomen. The eggs hatch, eat the tarantula, and go on to live their lives as the next generation of tarantula hawks.
            Sound gruesome? Tarantula hawks actually eat nectar for most of their adult lives, visiting flowers to gather the nectar just as honeybees do.
            The female tarantula hawks are the only ones that sting. You can tell the females and males apart because in most species, the males have straight antenna and the females have curly antenna. Also, the females are the only ones with stingers. Females are also larger than the males!
            Tarantula hawks, like many other flying insects, help pollinate flowers. We need pollinators! Without them we don’t have flowers and many of our foods such as fruits, vegetables, and plants that we use for medicine. 
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