Tarantula Wasp

Yes, spotting a tarantula under the tree swing yesterday was quite exciting, but watching it succumb to the powers of the tarantula wasp was absolutely amazing. “Mom, mom a huge thing, I think it’s a tarantula moving,” Michael called for others to enjoy watching the large arachnid. Sally arrived to see the spider crawling and noticed a large pair of red wings on top of it. “Oh my!” they thought, “the tarantula has caught a wasp!” They then realized the truth of the moment as the wasp gained control and started dragging the tarantula across the grass. Putting two and two together, Sally exclaimed, “I think that’s a tarantula wasp!” Michael responds excitedly with another, “Oh my, lets take a step closer.” Sally knowing better after hearing that this two inch wasp delivers one of the most painful stings of the animal world, decides they should keep their distance and not risk upsetting the determined predator.

Over the next several minutes, they observed the wasp haul its limp prey about five meters from the tree swing to the taller grass at the yard’s edge. John and I arrived home at this moment to join the Wild Kingdom moment and, yes, I knew that this was just the beginning of a fantastically gruesome relationship. The wasp buzzed off and burrowed nearby below the thick grass, and reappeared to cart the spider a few more inches. The pace of transport had slowed. It was like watching someone pulling an overloaded luggage cart through a crowded train station, as the spider would get caught on a grass blade and the wasp would attempt to maneuver it this way and that. Eventually, the wasp pulled the paralyzed tarantula under the grass and out of sight into a its new home for the next few weeks.

Spider wasps are common throughout the world, but rarely observed by urbanites, so we felt as if we were capturing a scene from Life In The Undergrowth. The wasp hides the still living spider in a burrow and lays an egg on it. The egg hatches, and the hungry larva feasts on this nutritious food source. The larva develops, morphs and leaves the burrow as an adult wasp to look for a mate and eventually a tarantula to play host for its young.

 Many species of wasp lay their eggs on living hosts or just eat the prey and regurgitate it to larva. We have seen wasp eggs stuck to the back of caterpillars in our tomato garden in Clarendon Hills. I’ll soon have to write about the cordyceps fungi. Ahhhh, the wonders of nature. Signed M.