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Project Noah Nature School
Predator and victim in macro...no ID on either...
Spotted on Mar 10, 2013
Submitted on Mar 10, 2013
4 Comments
Thank you John, yes the female stuns the spider with her sting and lays eggs in it. the babies eat their way out of the spider later... then the spider dies... my insect nerd friends told me its sting is more painful than the bullet ants! Schmidt Pain index - "4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream). 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.
Nice series. The wasp is a spider wasp (Pompilidae)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompilidae
Her job is to paralyze the spider, then drag it off to a hole somewhere and lay her egg on it. The wasp larva will develop by eating the spider.
Nice series!
Beautiful wasp and a very nice series!