Pompilidae wasp

Oh – apparently that’s been done. Bugger.
Talk about trying to get a freebie spin-off from a popular Youtube video. How dare they?

My own little Battle of Kruger didn’t actually happen in Kruger and wasn’t really much of a battle. There were no lions or buffaloes involved: we don’t get lions and buffaloes in Cape Town because Cape Town is in Europe.

No – instead, we get Rain Spiders and Pomilid Wasps, which for some reason have Capital Letters, and can be just as scary as Felis leo and Syncerus caffer when you see them close up. I described the charming legacy left by the parental wasps for their progeny – whereby they paralyse a spider, drag it to the nest and lay their eggs inside it, Alien-style – here. Well, last night, we watched it all happening.

Well, bits of it, anyway.
The spider had already been paralysed and was lying helpless in the gutter. The wasp was anxious to get the spider up to its nest, but despite being quite large was struggling with the (relatively) immense weight of the spider.

It was quite amazing to watch the effort that the wasp was putting in trying to heave its prey up the wall, but there were obvious weight and balance issues and it would only get so far 6″-8″ and then it would drop off.
Want to see? Want incisive commentary provided by my 18-month old daughter?
Then you need to watch the 23 second long HD video of The Battle of 6000’s Back Garden.

Prepare to be amazed.
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Last night, we were visted by (what I think is) a Pompilidae wasp.

We see these wasps fairly regularly dragging huge spiders across our garden – it amazing to watch. At first I though the spiders were dead, but not so – just paralysed. Here’s the story:

Spider wasps are long-legged, solitary wasps that use a single spider as a host for feeding their larvae. They paralyze the spider with a venomous stinger. Once paralyzed, the spider is dragged to where a nest will be built – some wasps having already made a nest.

A single egg is laid on the abdomen of the spider, and the nest – or burrow – is closed. The size of the host can influence whether the wasp will lay an egg that will develop as a male, or an egg that will develop into a female – larger prey yielding the (larger) females.
When the wasp larva hatches it begins to feed on the still-living spider. After consuming the edible parts of the spider, the larva spins a silk cocoon and pupates – usually emerging as an adult the next summer. Some ceropalines lay the egg on a still-active spider, where it feeds externally on hemolymph.
In time, that spider will die, and the mature wasp larva will then pupate.

Niiiice!
Fortunately, I didn’t need any stinging to knock me out last night. Heat and exhaustion did the trick.

Tag: Pompilidae wasp

The battle of Kruger, part two

Bedroom visitor