For another gouache experiment, I turned to the devil of the sky. Or, the creature that seemed that way to a younger me—the tarantula hawk, the largest and most powerful of the parasitoid wasps. Other species of parasitoid wasps target cicadas, caterpillars, and ladybugs. The tarantula hawk goes after a large spider that eats mice and small snakes. Despite being much larger than the wasp, the spider is outgunned. After the wasp paralyzes the tarantula with a sting, it’s larva eats the spider slowly, while it is still alive.
As a child, I loved spiders and kept a pet tarantula. In the picture books about spiders which I read and re-read, I skipped over the part about the tarantula hawk, after reading it once and being horrified.
I suppose that the prolonged torture of a living tarantula to nurture a newborn wasp is part of nature and therefore we must accept it? Charles Darwin saw parasitoid wasps as evidence that the universe was not created by an omnipotent and loving god.
Tarantula hawks are common in the desert where I work, and I’ll acknowledge that their blue-black iridescence can be quite pretty. Virginia’s state insect is the eastern tiger swallowtail. Pennsylvania’s state insect is the firefly. New Mexico’s state insect is the tarantula hawk.
As a child, I loved spiders and kept a pet tarantula. In the picture books about spiders which I read and re-read, I skipped over the part about the tarantula hawk, after reading it once and being horrified.
I suppose that the prolonged torture of a living tarantula to nurture a newborn wasp is part of nature and therefore we must accept it? Charles Darwin saw parasitoid wasps as evidence that the universe was not created by an omnipotent and loving god.
Tarantula hawks are common in the desert where I work, and I’ll acknowledge that their blue-black iridescence can be quite pretty. Virginia’s state insect is the eastern tiger swallowtail. Pennsylvania’s state insect is the firefly. New Mexico’s state insect is the tarantula hawk.
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