Tarantula Hawk Wasp

• Its sting occupies the top level of the Schmidt pain scale: it is described as a blinding electric shock lasting some three minutes, and the entomologists' practical advice is simply to lie down and scream.
• Even so it is not aggressive and almost never stings people unless handled.
• It is the official state insect of New Mexico, chosen by a vote of schoolchildren in 1989.
• Its sting is the second most painful in the insect world: it scores 4.0 on the Schmidt sting pain index, behind only the bullet ant.
• Yet the venom is barely toxic. The lethal dose measured in mice is extremely high, so its defensive value rests solely on pain, not damage. Schmidt described it as a blinding electric shock lasting about five minutes.
• Only the females sting, because they are the only ones that hunt.
• It hunts tarantulas far larger than itself. It locates the burrow, draws the spider out, paralyses it with a precise sting and drags it to a nest where it lays a single egg on it. The larva devours it alive, leaving the vital organs for last.
• The tarantulas do not win: specialists note that not a single documented case is known of the spider killing the wasp.
• That extreme pain has generated a whole mimicry complex: other wasps in the group share its warning coloration (Müllerian mimicry) and several harmless insects imitate it (Batesian mimicry).
• It is the official state insect of New Mexico, chosen in 1989 by a vote of schoolchildren.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Deserts and arid scrub of southern North America and South America

Sources consulted: Schmidt (2004 y 2016), The Sting of the Wild; Natural History Museum de Londres; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Vardy (2000)