Special wasp hunts tarantulas: poison extremely painful for humans
Created: 2022-12-25 04:46
By: Olaf Kubasik
Tarantula hawks are beautiful to look at, but they can be hell for humans.
© dpa picture alliance/Francois Gohier/ardea.com
People shouldn't trifle with wasps: the tarantula hawk, which kills tarantulas, is an impressive example of this.
It seems like an unfair struggle for survival in the animal kingdom.
On one side a large tarantula, on the other "just" a wasp.
A big one, but apparently still inferior.
No way!
Because the tarantula falcon is always the biblical David compared to the Goliath-like eight-legged creature, to which the largest tarantula in the world even owes its name.
The reason:
Pepsis formosa
is a killer that tarantulas use to reproduce – and in possession of a nasty poison, as
echo24.de
reports.
But first back to the "unequal" fight of the tarantula falcon with the tarantula, of which there is now also a species in Germany.
According to the Natural History Museum in Vienna, the spider was paralyzed with a sting and pulled into a hole in the ground.
"The wasp then lays a single egg on it and then closes the entrance hole.
The spider serves as food for the wasp larvae until they pupate.” And that while still alive.
kind | Tarantula Hawk (Pepsis grossa) |
body length | up to six centimeters (females) |
wingspan | up to twelve centimeters |
Occurrence | especially in Central America |
Wasp kills tarantulas: venom is painful to humans
Tarantula falcons do not pose a potential threat to humans.
Pepsis grossa
is not considered aggressive at all.
According to tierlexikon.ch
, the animals only bite when there is a “threat, defense of the nest or other excitement”.
And her sting is not life-threatening either.
But it's still so painful to humans that enhomologist Justin Orvel Schmidt put the tarantula hawk at number two on his Sting Pain Index, just behind the 24-hour ant.
Insect expert Schmidt, who has been stung by 150 species of insects from all over the world, has created his sting pain index in four levels before the decimal point.
The entomologist smugly describes the 4.0 scale value of the tarantula falcon as “violent, dazzling, terribly electric.
Like someone dropping a running blow dryer in your bubble bath."
On the other hand, hornets and honey bees occurring in Germany with their value of 2.2 are real woe orphans.
Tarantula hawk venom is designed to cause extreme pain—even in humans
However, there is no permanent damage for humans after a tarantula falcon sting, as Dr.
Gavin Broad from the National History Museum in London emphasizes: "The respective lethalities of 65 and 120 milligrams per kilogram in mice for the venoms show that the defense value of stings and venom from these
Pepsis
species is based exclusively on pain." However, on very bad pain , which can manifest itself as follows in people who have been bitten:
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massive circulatory problems
complete disorientation
fainting
YouTuber and "Animal Planet" moderator Nathaniel "Coyote" Peterson, who tries to bring Schmidt's sting pain index closer to younger generations thanks to his self-experiments, cries pathetically when he encounters the tarantula falcon.
Shortly before the start of the onset of crying, he tenses up.
To explain, breathing heavily while looking at his paralyzed and swelling arm: "This stitch is so hot - and associated with indescribable pain." However, it passes after a relatively short time.