Safety note: Sting is rated among the most painful of any insect — avoid handling.
The Tarantula Hawk is a giant, blue-black spider wasp with vivid rust-orange wings that hunts tarantulas, delivering a sting rated as one of the most painful insect stings in the world. The female paralyzes a tarantula and lays a single egg on it inside its own burrow; the wasp larva then consumes the living host over weeks. Despite their formidable reputation, adults are docile unless handled.
Habitat
Desert scrub, chaparral, and open arid lands of the Southwest
Diet
Adults: flower nectar. Larvae: paralyzed tarantulas
How common
Uncommon
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