Tarantula Hawk

By Vikram Rajaraman

Did you know I watched a movie where a “Housefly was thinking about Poop” and I learned about the Tarantula Hawk. It has red eyes and some of them have black eyes. The wings are orange in color. Some of them can also have black wings with blue dots. They eat flowers. The male tarantula hawk just sits like a “chakkai” on flowers and does nothing. The female tarantula hawks can actually eat milkweeds too. Females can paralyze Tarantulas by stinging it. It does that because it wants to lay eggs on it for the eggs to hatch. The larva can eat the Tarantula. The female Tarantula Hawk really really really paralyzes the Tarantula and after the larva are done eating, it dies.

I think Tarantulas fight with Scorpions but when they see the hawk they think it is another spider and say hi. But the hawk paralyzes them. You can find them in New Mexico.