The Enticing Tarantula Hawk

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Introduction

The tarantula hawk.

Tarantula Hawk Wasps (Pepsis formosa) of the Pompilidae family can grow to be between “0.94 to 2 inches” long. Their aposematic coloration, metallic blue-black bodies and orange wings, warns predators planning to attack to stay away! The adult wasps are generally quiescent, but females may sting enemies with their modified ovipositors. Whether or not a female will sting depends on the extent to which she feels threatened by the enemy. Many predators avoid this wasp because they do not want to experience what entomologist Justin O. Schmidt  describes as “blinding, fierce, [and] shockingly electric” pain (1984 Pain Index). A sting is accompanied by the injection of a small dosage of venom which is enough to paralyze tarantulas, the primary victims of this wasp.

We will discuss the matter of a tarantula hawk’s basic behaviors further before proceeding to examine many prominent examples of its depiction in popular culture contexts. Possible reasons for this insect’s increasing influence on research and the video gaming industry will be included in the conclusion.

Behavioral Activity

The behavior for the tarantula hawk is very unique. Based on the research done by Giraldo et. al, males and females start to be active around one and a half to two hours after sunrise. Many wasps come out of the nests and rest on the soil or grass. Both males and females leave the nest and fly for a short period of time. Males tend to have shorter flights and a longer resting period than females. Both males and females will fly towards vegetation nearby their nests in search of a meal. Feeding normally begins in the morning and lasts until noontime. Moreover, it was also found that the resting period for tarantula hawk wasps usually occurs when temperatures are high. During rainy days or under cold weather, the wasp’s activity level drastically increases.

Behaviors

Wasps within this genus are among some of the largest in North America! Although Pepsis wasps have many unique behaviors, we will focus mainly on their hunting and aggressive behaviors of in this section.

Hunting Behavior

The tarantula hawk, displaying its vivid colors.

Female behaviors within Pepsis with regards to hunting are the most unique and interesting. It is important to note that unlike the female wasps who have mated, unfertilized females will not go out hunting for tarantulas. When the fertile female first locates a tarantula, she seizes it with her mandibles, flips the spider on its back, and then lays a single egg on its body. She then drags that spider, or in this case a shield for her eggs, into either the spider’s burrow or an empty wasp nest before searching for more spider prey to lay her eggs on.After the female finds a secure place for the tarantula host and deposits a single egg on it, she will seal the burrow. The larva that eventually hatches from this egg will carefully consume the paralyzed spider. Once the larva is finished eating around the spider’s vital organs, it weaves a silken cocoon for itself. Then, it will metamorphose into the pupal stage. Lastly, it will emerge as an adult wasp and starts its entire new life.

Aggressive Behavior

Although Tarantula Hawks are known for hunting and killing tarantulas, they are actually  not very aggressive insects. Having said this, don’t go provoking them–they have one of the most painful stings of any insect! Such a powerful sting is fairly common in a solitary insect, one that is not a social insect and has to defend a hive or colony. This sting, however, is fairly non-lethal to humans and is thought to have evolved because Pepsis often are searching for food out in the open in fields, where they are vulnerable to attack by predators such as roadrunners. Furthermore, as with all true-stinging insects, only the female Pepsis can actually sting (although the males can fake a sting). Females can be identified by the curls at the end of their antennae (Bugguide) For the most part though, most predators will stay away from the tarantula hawk so the only time it will actually be aggressive is if it really feels threatened or if it is looking for a host to feed its babies. So don’t be afraid! These insects just have a bad reputation and if you don’t provoke them then you have little to worry about.

Cultural Depictions

The tarantula hawk, while not commonly known by most, can actually be found in a surprising amount of places outside the entomological world. We will explore why this may be the case, and how such an unknown insect has stirred the imaginations of those who would not otherwise know about such a creature.

State Insect

The most prominent “role” the tarantula hawk has played in the popular consciousness is as the state insect of New Mexico. This insect was chosen as the state insect through a popular vote of the students of New Mexico in 1988, out of three choices. It finished ahead of the yucca moth (Prodoxidae) and jerusalem cricket (Stenopelmatus). While most states have state insects, the fact that the tarantula hawk was chosen through a popularity contest is interesting. We do not know for sure what captured the imaginations of the students who voted for this insect, but by simply taking a look at the social media reaction (including Twitter search results) for “tarantula hawk” and considering their unique and strange behaviors, we can certainly guess at what made the tarantula hawk so appealing. First of all, the idea of parasitism seems to be one that captures many imaginations, as evidenced by its countless portrayals in popular culture, from Alien to Animorphs. Furthermore, the particularly intelligent and gruesome way in which the tarantula hawk consumes the predated tarantula seems to connote a sort of grim calculation, again a source of fascination, as seen in the variety of crime stories which are exceedingly popular in America. Indeed, most comments about the tarantula hawk on Twitter involve an amazement at the violence and seemingly horrific behavior of the insects! Even as elementary school students, American culture seems to be rife with such ideas, and these factors combined to make the tarantula hawk a much more interesting candidate for a state insect than the other insects, even though it has a rather violent lifestyle.

Surveilance Vehicle

The T-Hawk reconnaissance vehicle.

These dual fascinations of the tarantula hawk’s intelligence and curious lifecycle make it suitable for other cultural references. For instance, aerospace manufacturer Honeywell, a supplier for the US military, has named its hovering reconnaissance vehicle, the T-Hawk, after the tarantula hawk, citing similarities in their appearances. However, more than that, both the insect and vehicle act as “predators” of larger beings, as the insect preys on larger tarantulas, while the T-Hawk is able to conduct surveillance of enemy territories, clearly larger than itself. Hence, even in a military setting, the behavior of the tarantula hawk has excited imaginations.

Video Games

The Cazador, from Fallout: New Vegas.

Yet another reference occurs in one of the most popular mediums of our age, namely video games. In the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas, the player explores the wasteland which the world has become after a nuclear war. One of the enemies in this game is known as the Cazador, Spanish for hunter, which looks essentially like a large tarantula hawk. Indeed, the game’s lead designer confirmed the influence. In the game, the cazador flies aggressively at the character and can do much damage. This is clearly in reference to the tarantula hawk’s sting, which it uses to paralyze the tarantula. While this representation does not utilize the lifecycle of the tarantula hawk, it does reference its powerful sting, and out of all other insects which can sting, the developers of the game chose this one.

And in the End…

Through all of these examples, we can see that the tarantula hawk has many elements which make it especially interesting and relevant to humans. While it is not the only parasitic insect, nor the only stinging insect, the combination of these and other behaviors have made the insect stay in our minds, long after we are introduced to it. From these memories, various people, from students to aircraft engineers, have used it as inspiration for numerous purposes. Indeed, the tarantula hawk manages to be memorable and loved, in a way, through a remarkable combination of violent behaviors. It beats the odds, and proves that an insect need not be cute nor friendly in order to be loved; sometimes it’s enough to be specialized in a very different way.

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How to write a good insect blog post

Aside

Welcome to Post 1 of the ESPM42 Pepsis student blog. This blog will define and focus on what it means to have a well put together blog. We hope you enjoy and learn some helpful tips along the way!

Aesthetics

When designing a blog, its aesthetics are one of the most important features to consider. Looking at something that is well presented and attractive makes readers more likely to engage in the material and makes them excited to read more. By looking at various different blogs, we have compiled a list of “must do’s” to have a well presented, aesthetically pleasing blog.

1) Pictures

Pictures are an essential piece when creating your blog. By inserting pictures in between long paragraphs of information, you create a more reader friendly environment. Often, making your pictures have some kind of border (even if it is just black) helps create a clear and clean presentation for your blog. Great examples of picture usage in blogs can be found in the Bug Under Glass blog.

2) Blog Background

The central factor that will draw your viewers’ eyes to the information you will presenting is the background of your blog. You can pick one that shares a common theme with your topic, you can go with bold thick lines with earthly colors, or choose a bright and modern theme. One thing you should remember is to make  your background appealing but not distracting! Further tips about what not to do when designing your blog will come later in the post. The Tortricidae blog has a very appealing background which matches its theme perfectly.

3) Paragraph Organization

The way the paragraphs are constructed is very important for the overall appearance of your blog. You want to avoid stringing together many long paragraphs for this can turn off the viewer and possibly overwhelm them with a blog that looks like it is too packed full of information. We thought this blog created by fellow ESPM 42 students called A Blog About Mosquitos did a great job at breaking paragraphs up to make the information more readable.

Blog Content

The blogger’s constant balancing act: information and entertainment.

In our opinion, content is one of the most important, if not THE most important aspects of a scientific blog. The entire point, in fact is to share your research and information with those who are interested in similar topics or who are looking to learn more about a blog’s topic. The blogger must be careful, however, as you do not want an overload of information that is not engaging to the user. It’s a balancing act: how can you keep your reader from falling asleep, but also have them learn what you have to teach? The author of the Bug Under Glass Blog post entitled “Biblical Plagues in Modern America” shows us a great example of how to keep a reader engaged in the following excerpt:

“Witnesses reported trees breaking under the weight of the insects and layers forming on the ground up to six inches thick. There were so many locusts that their brined and solidified bodies clogged the Great Salt Lake in Utah and formed walls six feet high extending two miles away from the lake. The swarm was speculated to contain more than 3.5 trillion locusts and span over 198,000 square miles, larger than the state of California.”

This quote does two things: It engages the reader, but also gives a vivid depiction of the immense quantity of locusts that could potentially begin swarming. It entertains and informs at the same time. This is the goal.

You don’t want to tangle up your readers in confusing writing! Make your posts clear and easy to understand.

Another goal of the blogger is to match the content of a blog to the target audience of the blog. If your blog is meant to inform the public, then you shouldn’t use complicated technical jargon that only a graduate student studying the topic will understand. However, if your intended audience does consist of graduate students, then the technical jargon should be encouraged and can help establish your credibility and understanding of the topic (if a fellow researcher came across this blog, it may be hard to find credible, complex, and new information on a blog with pictures of animated mice: http://blogs.disney.com). Even then, however, this is a blog, not an essay for a professor. Don’t bog them down with so much information, condensed into such a confined space, that they lose interest or have trouble following what you are saying. It is still important to be creative.

David Munger, of the Science of Blogging website, believes that bloggers should “Assume most of your readers won’t get past the headline. Assume most of the rest won’t get past the opening paragraph.” This means that there should be a clear and concise introduction that details the overall message. Kathy Garvey, writing for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources blog Bug Squad, does an excellent job of this in her blog post “Bugs Will Rule at UC Davis Picnic Day.” Through the title, we can already see that the blog post will be about insects on the UC Davis campus. Reading further, only two sentences in, we find that “The UC Davis Department of Entomology is planning lots of ‘bug’ activities as part of the campuswide celebration,” giving the reader an overall summary of what the entire blog will be about. Furthermore, now, as the reader, we now know what the message of the blog was, even though we only read a small portion of the blog.

Credibility

We touched on this point in the Content section of the post above, but felt it was important to iterate on it further. Bloggers share about a topic of interest or an experience in a post. Occasionally, the blogger should pause while writing to consider whether his or her audience will be able to understand the blog’s content. It is acceptable to spend an extra sentence on elaboration or clarification of a point; keep in mind that words are (mostly) free online! The goal of blogging is not only to convey personal thoughts, but also to provide meaningful information which leaves readers feeling that the post is worthwhile. Moreover, a successful post balances statements of opinion with statements of fact. The blogger can imagine being in the reader’s position and ask him or herself, “Are these details relevant to the topic?” and “How can I check if this statement is true or false?” For example, Kathy Garvey, writing for Bug Squad in the article  “Targeting the Malaria Mosquito”, cites the scientist which has studied the topic and links to his professional website. Both of these components demonstrate that Neal is not fabricating evidence, but relying on actual experts in order to gain the information that she has written about. Readers can research these facts online if they desire to verify the validity of Macrae’s facts. There are many ways a blogger can show the reader he or she is credible. Some bloggers will create an entire Bibliography section. Listed within the section are titles, names of authors, and links to sources that they have used for the post. As a general rule of thumb, bloggers should give credit to the source anytime they include information in a post that is not common knowledge or original, just like in other scholarly and non-scholarly works.

Language

The use of language is another crucial aspect when writing an educational, appealing and well-presented blog post. As was mentioned in the previous paragraphs, keeping the audience engaged is the main priority when presenting any kind of information. Thus, the usage of language should be carefully considered.

1) Always define unfamiliar terms

All blog posts are open to the public. Hence, a good insect blog post (or any blog post in general!) should seek to enrich the minds of audiences with different backgrounds. Hence, defining all unfamiliar terms becomes exceptionally important. For example, people with some background in insects, such as all of us in this class, will not need to read about the difference between complete metamorphosis and incomplete metamorphosis. However, for those who do lack such a background, they may feel confused while they encounter technical terms such as complete and incomplete metamorphosis. Thus, if the blog post is not aimed solely at an enthusiast audience, you should make sure to define any terms which may confuse the reader, or at least provide a link to a source where a definition can be found.

2) Frequently switch between definitive language and descriptive language

Other than defining all unfamiliar terms, making frequent switches between definitive language and descriptive language is also critical when writing a good blog post. Definitive language accurately explains a concept from an academic perspective. While obtaining the information, descriptive language will further reinforce the information being introduced by building involvement between the audiences and the post. By combining facts and descriptions, the reader will be both informed and entertained, the ideal situation! For example, from the Bug Squad post “‘Killer Bees’: Where Are They in California?”, the killer bee’s ruthlessness has been vividly described in conjunction with various facts about the bees themselves. Thus, audiences can easily visualize the behavior of the bees and learn a great deal in the process!

What Not to Do

Throughout this post, we have provided some key elements of successful blogs and blog posts. However, there are some things that you should avoid when writing your very own blog.

A blogger’s best friend!

  • Do not make your background so cluttered and confusing that your reader cannot focus on the information you are trying to present. This is especially crucial if you are going for a themed approach for the background. The reader should be visiting the blog primarily for the content, not the style! Make the blog fun and exciting to look at to draw the readers in, but focus on making the actual words fun and exciting as well.
  • Do not put irrelevant pictures in your blog. If you insert unrelated or confusing pictures, you risk losing credibility with your audience, and the reader may feel like their time is being wasted.
  • Do not be afraid to express yourself and your ideas in a creative way! It is natural to create an eye-catching theme for one’s blog, but how about a “mind-catching” article? By giving the reader something they haven’t seen before, whether that is a new viewpoint, writing style, or simply a new take on an established theme, you can cement your creative reputation in the reader’s mind and make it more likely that they will come back.
  • Do not assume audiences know all of the technical terms. In general, blogs are meant to share information with the world, and as mentioned in the Language section of this post, you should not simply assume that the reader will be curious enough to look up all the terms on their own. By providing easy access to definitions or supplying them inline, you keep the reader on the page and more focused on your content.
  • Do not post a blog with spelling or grammatical errors that will distract the reader’s attention from the point you want to communicate. In other words, proofread, proofread, proofread! The Internet makes editing very easy, but you don’t want readers to look at your blog and notice errors. Not only does this make you less credible, but it is simply jarring to read. Bloggers don’t have to be professional copyeditors, but they should be able to communicate effectively and properly.

In Conclusion…

Blogging, above all, should be about sharing your passions with the world. The Internet has given all of us the freedom to share our thoughts and viewpoints with the rest of the world in a freely accessible manner, and this amazing opportunity should not be taken for granted. If you really feel like you want to share something with the world, go for it! Make your post fun and exciting, but also informative. Try to convey your passion in your writing, and make your reader as engaged as you are in your subject. If you follow our guidelines and advice, we are confident that you, too, can create a successful, fun blog that will be the talk of everyone’s Twitter feeds and RSS readers.

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