Post by rock on May 7, 2019 22:03:57 GMT 5
goliath birdeater tarantula
The Goliath birdeater is the king of spiders. Weighing up to six ounces and with a leg span of nearly a foot, this tarantula is the largest arachnid on the planet.
Goliaths don’t usually eat birds, but they are big enough to be able to—and occasionally they do. “Birdeater” came from an 18th-century engraving that showed another kind of tarantula eating a hummingbird, which gave the entire Theraphosa genus the name birdeater.
Insects make up most of the Goliath diet, but small frogs , snakes , lizards , bats , rats and scorpions are on the menu too. Goliaths prowl the Amazon in northern South America. When a Goliath pounces on a mouse, for example, its inch-long fangs act like hypodermic needles, pumping neurotoxins into the hapless prey. The spider then drags the dying animal back to its burrow and begins the digestion process. Spiders can’t ingest solid material, so they first liquefy the prey’s insides, then suck it dry.
Though they don’t spin webs to trap food, Goliaths do use their weaving skills in another way: to line their burrows under the forest floor.
It's deadly to small creatures, but the Goliath’s venom is not lethal to humans. A bite would sting about as much as a wasp’s. The giant spider is a delicacy in some parts of South America—though its urticating hairs are carefully singed away before the spider is roasted in banana leaves.
Unlike jumping spiders, Goliath birdeaters have bad eyesight. They rely instead on modified leg hairs, sensitive to vibration, to warn them of danger. If a predator like a coati gets too close, the Goliath has an unusual weapon: harpoon-shaped hairs (called urticating hairs) tipped with stinging barbs. The spider rubs its legs together, launching a shower of miniature missiles into the air. The hairs connect with the would-be assailant’s eyes and skin, sending it scurrying.
Female Goliaths use those same urticating hairs to cover their large egg sacs, which hold between 50 and 150 eggs. Hatchlings stay close to their mother until they fully mature at two to three years.
tarantula hawk wasp-pepsi wasp
The more familiar species are up to 5 cm (2 in) long, making them among the largest of wasps, and have blue-black bodies and bright, rust-colored wings (other species have black wings with blue highlights). The vivid coloration found on their bodies, and especially wings, is an aposematism, advertising to potential predators the wasps' ability to deliver a powerful sting. Their long legs have hooked claws for grappling with their victims. The stinger of a female Pepsis grossa can be up to 7 mm (9⁄32 in) long, and the powerful sting is considered one of the most painful insect stings in the world.The female tarantula hawk wasp stings and paralyzes a tarantula, then drags the prey to a specially prepared brooding nest, where a single egg is laid on the spider's abdomen, and the entrance is covered.[3] Sex of the larvae is determined by fertilization; fertilized eggs produce females, while unfertilized eggs produce males.[3] When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen, then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive. After several weeks, the larva pupates. Finally, the wasp becomes an adult and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the life cycle.
Adult tarantula hawks are nectarivorous. The consumption of fermented fruit sometimes intoxicates them to the point that flight becomes difficult. While the wasps tend to be most active in the daytime in summer, they tend to avoid high temperatures. The male tarantula hawk does not hunt; instead, it feeds off the flowers of milkweeds, western soapberry trees, or mesquite trees (females feed on these same plants, as well). Male tarantula hawks have been observed practicing a behavior called hill-topping, in which they sit atop tall plants and watch for passing females ready to reproduce. Females are not very aggressive, in that they are hesitant to sting, but the sting is extraordinarily painful.Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.[8] One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[5] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce[, and] shockingly electric".[2] Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few that can is the roadrunner. Many predatory animals avoid these wasps, and many different insects mimic them, including various other wasps and bees (Müllerian mimics), as well as moths, flies (e.g., mydas flies), and beetles (e.g., Tragidion) (Batesian mimics).
Aside from the possibility of triggering an allergic reaction, the sting is not dangerous and does not require medical attention. Local redness appears in most cases after the pain, and lasts for up to a week.
The Goliath birdeater is the king of spiders. Weighing up to six ounces and with a leg span of nearly a foot, this tarantula is the largest arachnid on the planet.
Goliaths don’t usually eat birds, but they are big enough to be able to—and occasionally they do. “Birdeater” came from an 18th-century engraving that showed another kind of tarantula eating a hummingbird, which gave the entire Theraphosa genus the name birdeater.
Insects make up most of the Goliath diet, but small frogs , snakes , lizards , bats , rats and scorpions are on the menu too. Goliaths prowl the Amazon in northern South America. When a Goliath pounces on a mouse, for example, its inch-long fangs act like hypodermic needles, pumping neurotoxins into the hapless prey. The spider then drags the dying animal back to its burrow and begins the digestion process. Spiders can’t ingest solid material, so they first liquefy the prey’s insides, then suck it dry.
Though they don’t spin webs to trap food, Goliaths do use their weaving skills in another way: to line their burrows under the forest floor.
It's deadly to small creatures, but the Goliath’s venom is not lethal to humans. A bite would sting about as much as a wasp’s. The giant spider is a delicacy in some parts of South America—though its urticating hairs are carefully singed away before the spider is roasted in banana leaves.
Unlike jumping spiders, Goliath birdeaters have bad eyesight. They rely instead on modified leg hairs, sensitive to vibration, to warn them of danger. If a predator like a coati gets too close, the Goliath has an unusual weapon: harpoon-shaped hairs (called urticating hairs) tipped with stinging barbs. The spider rubs its legs together, launching a shower of miniature missiles into the air. The hairs connect with the would-be assailant’s eyes and skin, sending it scurrying.
Female Goliaths use those same urticating hairs to cover their large egg sacs, which hold between 50 and 150 eggs. Hatchlings stay close to their mother until they fully mature at two to three years.
tarantula hawk wasp-pepsi wasp
The more familiar species are up to 5 cm (2 in) long, making them among the largest of wasps, and have blue-black bodies and bright, rust-colored wings (other species have black wings with blue highlights). The vivid coloration found on their bodies, and especially wings, is an aposematism, advertising to potential predators the wasps' ability to deliver a powerful sting. Their long legs have hooked claws for grappling with their victims. The stinger of a female Pepsis grossa can be up to 7 mm (9⁄32 in) long, and the powerful sting is considered one of the most painful insect stings in the world.The female tarantula hawk wasp stings and paralyzes a tarantula, then drags the prey to a specially prepared brooding nest, where a single egg is laid on the spider's abdomen, and the entrance is covered.[3] Sex of the larvae is determined by fertilization; fertilized eggs produce females, while unfertilized eggs produce males.[3] When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen, then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive. After several weeks, the larva pupates. Finally, the wasp becomes an adult and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the life cycle.
Adult tarantula hawks are nectarivorous. The consumption of fermented fruit sometimes intoxicates them to the point that flight becomes difficult. While the wasps tend to be most active in the daytime in summer, they tend to avoid high temperatures. The male tarantula hawk does not hunt; instead, it feeds off the flowers of milkweeds, western soapberry trees, or mesquite trees (females feed on these same plants, as well). Male tarantula hawks have been observed practicing a behavior called hill-topping, in which they sit atop tall plants and watch for passing females ready to reproduce. Females are not very aggressive, in that they are hesitant to sting, but the sting is extraordinarily painful.Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.[8] One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[5] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce[, and] shockingly electric".[2] Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few that can is the roadrunner. Many predatory animals avoid these wasps, and many different insects mimic them, including various other wasps and bees (Müllerian mimics), as well as moths, flies (e.g., mydas flies), and beetles (e.g., Tragidion) (Batesian mimics).
Aside from the possibility of triggering an allergic reaction, the sting is not dangerous and does not require medical attention. Local redness appears in most cases after the pain, and lasts for up to a week.
