Monday, October 6, 2008

I found the awesome thing.

From a story in my hometown paper about the fall ritual of mating tarantulas:

But the spider's most intimidating foe is one whose life cycle revolves around it: the tarantula wasp, which is nearly as big as the spider itself, hence its alias "the tarantula hawk."

The wasp stings the tarantula, paralyzing it, then injects the spider with eggs, which become larvae and eat the tarantula from the inside out.


Dude, gross! Seriously.

6 comments:

Brian Hurley said...

"I found the awesome thing" is great. That must be the unofficial title of every blog ever written.

My friends and I once found a tarantula crossing our trail at Pinnacles National Monument. We were kids. We wrapped it up in a baseball cap, I think. Now I know that tarantula had to be a male.

Carrie M said...

See also this post, from November of last year:
http://frompeppermint.blogspot.com/2007/11/creep-crawlin-away.html
Notice that this is the same newspaper writing almost the same story year after year. I prefer the 2008 model.

Vladkin said...

What is WRONG with the Tarantula Wasp??? Good god! I'm so freaked out right now.

jane b said...

Oh me oh my I do love a great wacky animal story. Thanks, Carolyn! It is the awesome thing!

Also the awesome (but sad) thing:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/23/eacrabs123.xml

I saw a nature show on these guys back in 2003 in Spain and now I think of them every time I see an ant.

Carrie M said...

"Yellow crazy ants." That's fantastic! Ants vs. Crabs...the ultimate smackdown.

Vladkin said...

acid-squirting ants...

 

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