It hunts tarantulas
The female stings a tarantula to paralyse it, drags it to a burrow and lays one egg on it. The grub eats the spider alive.
The desert · Bees, wasps and ants
Tarantula hawk wasp
Pepsis
A large wasp with a blue-black body, bright orange wings and curled antennae.
- Size
- Up to 5cm long
- Look for it
- May to September
- Where
- Deserts and dry country from the southern United States to South America
Runs after you, flicking its wings. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Tarantula hawk
Good to know
Six things about the tarantula hawk
One of the worst stings
Its sting is rated among the most painful of any insect. The advice from the man who measured it is to lie down and scream.
Three minutes
The pain is fierce but lasts only about three minutes, and does no lasting harm.
It is not aggressive
It ignores people unless it is grabbed. Hardly anything dares to eat it.
The adults drink nectar
Adult wasps feed at flowers, especially milkweed, and sometimes get drunk on fermented fruit.
New Mexico's state insect
It was chosen as the state insect of New Mexico after a class of schoolchildren proposed it.
The real thing
Photos of the tarantula hawk
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Look on milkweed and mesquite flowers on summer days. The orange wings and jerky walk are easy to recognise.
How to help
Watch it and leave it be. The orange wings are a warning, and it means it.
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