A nerdy nature moment
When I was a kid, whenever we would go to my Grandma and Grandpa Baird's house, I had a set routine. I would probably go shopping with Grandma in Billings and get some new shoes and a new outfit. We'd get free soda's at either the Refinery or the gas station along with a treat for the trip. At the house, we'd have peas and potatoes in cream with fresh tomatoes and salt. Upstairs, there were videos. I would watch the Star Wars Trilogy, Firefox, Bill Cosby - Himself and a nature video about spiders. The spider video was amazing (actually, I loved all those videos, that's why I watched them every single time I went there). One thing that stuck out from the spider video, was a bit about the Pepsis wasp. The video showed a pepsis wasp attack and kill a tarantula, drag it into a hole and lay its eggs in it so its young would have fresh food to eat. It was shocking video.
Since living in Las Vegas, I have seen pepsis wasps (they are black with orangish wings) and wondered if that meant there are a lot of tarantulas in the neighborhood. I assumed that the video footage meant that the pepsis lived exclusively on tarantulas. Well, last Saturday, I was headed out to run errands in the morning and saw something as big as a leaf moving along the sidewalk. Being sort of an amateur entomologist (as long as I don't have to touch any cockroaches), I hustled over to find a pepsis wasp dragging a large wolf spider from the rocks in front of my house across the street. It crossed the whole street in about 20 seconds. The wasp is about an inch long and was dragging a spider that weighed at least three times what it did I grabbed my phone and tried to get some pics. This is what I got:
I new I'm showing my true nerdiness, but I was blown away by this. I wish I could have gotten more and better pictures. A wasp dragging a spider that (with legs spread out) approaches four inches in diameter was AWESOME. If you don't like it, I don't care.
If you like bugs, and want to see what this NECTIVOROUS (except for its grubs) wasp is all about, click here.
Since living in Las Vegas, I have seen pepsis wasps (they are black with orangish wings) and wondered if that meant there are a lot of tarantulas in the neighborhood. I assumed that the video footage meant that the pepsis lived exclusively on tarantulas. Well, last Saturday, I was headed out to run errands in the morning and saw something as big as a leaf moving along the sidewalk. Being sort of an amateur entomologist (as long as I don't have to touch any cockroaches), I hustled over to find a pepsis wasp dragging a large wolf spider from the rocks in front of my house across the street. It crossed the whole street in about 20 seconds. The wasp is about an inch long and was dragging a spider that weighed at least three times what it did I grabbed my phone and tried to get some pics. This is what I got:
Here is another one:
I new I'm showing my true nerdiness, but I was blown away by this. I wish I could have gotten more and better pictures. A wasp dragging a spider that (with legs spread out) approaches four inches in diameter was AWESOME. If you don't like it, I don't care.
If you like bugs, and want to see what this NECTIVOROUS (except for its grubs) wasp is all about, click here.
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