‘Horrid in every way’: Wasp drags paralysed tarantula to its den to feed offspring
This is the sickening moment a wasp dragged a paralysed giant spider back to its den for its offspring to feed on.
US couple Donna and Mark Pantuso were out enjoying their evening in Roswell, New Mexico, when they captured the amazing scene on camera.
Donna filmed a tarantula hawk – a wasp known for hunting tarantulas – as it dragged a huge spider across their property’s yard on July 8.
Although the spider looks dead, Marita De La Pena, 38, who owns a zoo housing reptiles and invertebrates, says the tarantula was actually paralysed. But she said the worst was yet to come for the insect, who would soon become a cocoon for the wasp’s offspring.
Ms De La Pena, who uploaded the video on to her Deadly Tarantula Girl YouTube channel, said tarantula hawks are some of the largest wasps in North America, measuring about 5cm, with a stinger up to one 3.3cm long.
These wasps are nectivores, which consume a sugary, nectar-based diet derived from flowering plants, she said. However their offspring feed in a more macabre fashion.
“When a female wasp is ready to lay her eggs, she starts hunting big spiders, which she will inject with her paralysing venom.
“She then drags the paralysed tarantula back to her burrow and lays one egg in the spider’s abdomen.
“The tarantula lives in this horrifying state for several weeks until the little grub hatches and develops into a feeding stage,” Ms De La Pena said.
“The larva will then start feeding on its host until its ultimate moult, at which point it erupts through the spider’s abdomen violently ending the life of the tarantula.
“My reaction to this scene of the female wasp dragging the tarantula was one of awe and horror, because I knew that the tarantula had not been slain but still had a frightening and excruciatingly painful experience ahead.”
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