Spider Wasp

[crinkles]

found this puppy on my lawn today... dragging a huntsman to his burrow. pretty impressive!

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_wasps/OrangeSpiderWasp.htm

 

[Shannow]

They've got a pretty interesting life cycle.

 

[crinkles]

yeah - bury the spider, poop there eggs out on it, spider remains paralysed (but alive) all this time, until the little wasp hatches and feeds of the live spider (apparently). When I saw it I thought "Japanese yellow hornet" and had a freak out, then i realised hey, they're probably not too aggro...

 

[JHZR2]

yikes! 30mm? We have cicada killer wasps around here that look pretty scary.

http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~hollidac/cicadakillerhome.html

 

[wantin150]

JHZR2- Have those here too. BIG, BIG, BIG!

 

[alreadygone]

Very similar to our "mud Daubbers". Except they're not quite as large and usually pack several spiders in each chamber of their mud nests,,may be up to 6-8 compartments with a egg in each. aggravating buggers, as their mud nests can be found anywhere,,air filter inlets, hubcaps, under the eave of buildings. Anyplace that sits still for a few hours. They'll even build while parked in the same spot daily in spite of trips home in the evening.

Bob

 

[mechtech2]

We have bigger ones in Arizona. Way bigger than a measly 1 1/2".

 

[wavinwayne]

We have some type of nasty-looking flying wasp/hornet/something here in North AL, that is about the size of a hummingbird. Basically, it looks like a hornet, but about 5x as big. I have no idea what the things are, or if they're even stinging creatures; but they look MEAN. I tried googling to find a picture of one, but had no luck.

Does anyone from the SE USA know anything about the insect I described?

 

[BrianWC]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
We have some type of nasty-looking flying wasp/hornet/something here in North AL, that is about the size of a hummingbird. Basically, it looks like a hornet, but about 5x as big. I have no idea what the things are, or if they're even stinging creatures; but they look MEAN. I tried googling to find a picture of one, but had no luck.

Does anyone from the SE USA know anything about the insect I described?


That's a cicada killer. I corresponded with the Prof. Chuck Holliday of the previous link when I discovered I had these under my house a few years ago. He was excited b/c he didn't have a specimen from my area. He will gladly send you a little kit to store a dead one in to send back to him.

The things are monsters! You've never been more scared of a wasp until you've seen a cicada killer carrying a shrieking cicada through the air and back to its hole.

Here's a pic from Holliday that shows cicada killers and a hornet. The small insect on the top right is the hornet!!!

 

[wavinwayne]

That may be it, but I'm almost certain that the insect I'm thinking of is bigger. I can't be 100% sure until I see another one, which won't be until next summer. I'll try to get a picture.

Interesting note: Although the male cicada killer wasp looks very menacing, he can not sting. Only the female can sting. I still wouldn't want to tempt nature.

 

[JHZR2]

palmetto bug?

 

[BrianWC]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
That may be it, but I'm almost certain that the insect I'm thinking of is bigger. I can't be 100% sure until I see another one, which won't be until next summer. I'll try to get a picture.

Interesting note: Although the male cicada killer wasp looks very menacing, he can not sting. Only the female can sting. I still wouldn't want to tempt nature.


The female is bigger than the male. And the female flying through the air with a cicada looks very large indeed.

 

[crinkles]

we need some cicada killers down here. Some nights I can't hear the TV over the din of the cicadas...

 

[buster]

Yeah they are huge. I remember catching a few when I was a kid. I also remember looking in a encyclopedia Britanica to find out what it was. Ah...the internet.

 

[BrianWC]

Here's another pic showing how big they are. What's weird is the kind I am seeing here are resident in the eastern US and Midwest. Yet I never saw or even heard of these things growing up. It wasn't until I moved into my current home.