Sunil found a fully intact (dead) tarantula hawk in his room today. Instead of giving it to Sheela for her bug collection he has decided to keep it and start his own collection. The tarantula hawk is closely related to the cicada killer wasp but instead of placing a dead cicada in with its larva it places a dead tartanula in with the larva. Charming.
According to the Wikipedia "The sting, particularly of Pepsis formosa, is among the most painful of any insect. Commenting on his own experience, one researcher described the pain as '...immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one’s ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."It is listed near the top of the list in Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Although the sting is quite painful the effect is reported to last only a few minutes and is fatal less often than the honey bee. '"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Sounds painful indeed. What a cool find (and luckily out-of-commission!).
Glad it was dead!!
I cannot express how happy I am that Sunil wants to start his own collection!!!!
GL
Post a Comment