#tarantula-hawk-wasp

[treesbian]

Keith’s mullet is sooo elevated to me when it is a Lesbian Mullet™️

I feel like Allura in your fic like

Keith’s mullet 🫤😴

Keith’s lesbian mullet 😳😍

I think it's funny that it's not even a mullet but he just never disputes it. but yes exactly this is how she feels about Keith's whole thing

allura about keith's whole deal when she thinks he's a boy: eh. whatever... he's not hideous... he has a stupid jacket 😕🫤😴

allura about keith when she knows he's a lesbian: 🥰😍😍😍😍🥰🥰 he is the most beautiful girl i've ever seen ever in my life look at his hair and his fashionable jacket and my goodness his voice 😵‍💫🥰🥰😍😍😍😳😳😳😫

[magdaclaire]

I (@milfcodeddean) will draw garth art for 15k if that slot is open

omg hi hal i had no idea this was ur main, but yeah, i'll pencil you in! thank you for participating !! <3

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Sad, Justin Schmidt of the insect pain scale passed away

[eddiediaaz]

Tropes to rate : Co-parents to lovers, hanahaki (idk how to spell) disease, amnesia

thank youuu!

co-parents to lovers (this applies to one very specific ship haha) no | rather not | i dunno | i guess | sure | yes | FUCK yes | oh god you don’t even know

hanahaki disease (i've never read any) no | rather not | i dunno | i guess | sure | yes | FUCK yes | oh god you don’t even know

amnesia no | rather not | i dunno | i guess | sure | yes | FUCK yes | oh god you don’t even know

[onenicebugperday]

Wasp katydid, Aganacris velutina, Tettingoniidae

Found in Central and northern South America, this species of katydid expertly  mimics tarantula hawk wasps in the genus Pepsis, but it is, of course, harmless.

Photographed by Frank Deschandol // Instagram

Photos shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!

Tarantula hawk wasp, Pepsis mildei, for comparison:

Photo by leptonia

[flame-shadow]

Wasp character sketches part one of however many I end up doing: Tarantula Hawk Wasp and Mexican Honey Wasp (plus cameos from an Ichneumon wasp [Cryptinae subfamily] and a jumping spider)

I could've done a few more sketches to get a better handle on the honey wasp's shapes and features, but I had to go after sketching what I did, so that was where it ended.

[vintagewildlife]

Tarantula hawk wasp paralyzing a tarantula By: E. S. Ross From: Natural History Magazine 1984

[fallout-lou-begas]

I'm watching a video of a tarantula hawk preying on a tarantula and it's really, really fascinating because the most immediately striking thing about it is how strange it is that the big, fearsome, powerful-looking tarantula barely even tries to fight back. It's almost uncanny: you watch it and you feel like something is wrong. The tarantula just stands there, fangs raised, but doesn't really attack the wasp that's circling around and waiting for its chance to sting the nerve center in its prey's weak underbelly. You want to scream at the tarantula to run away, at least. But it makes sense when you consider what each creature has evolved to do, and evolved to understand.

The tarantula looks strong, but it's a relatively fragile creature. It's an ambush hunter with very poor vision and senses its prey mostly through scent and vibration, and all of its other predators are large animals (coyotes, birds, etc.) that it barely stands a chance against anyway. Besides its irritating hairs, its sole offensive option is its bite, and though it can skitter pretty fast, it's grounded.

The tarantula hawk, on the other hand, is an extremely fast and extremely aggressive flying predator* with relatively good eyesight. They attack very quickly and precisely, exploiting the tarantula's natural defensive position to attack its underbelly. With a single sting in the right spot, it can completely paralyze its target; defensively, its hard exoskeleton protects it entirely from the tarantula's hairs and bite. It can outlast and outmaneuver the tarantula completely. As the video states, it's also possible that the tarantula hawk releases an odor during these encounters that disorients the tarantula, which relies on its scent to perceive its surroundings. (*despite necessarily preying upon tarantulas as part of its reproductive cycle, the tarantula is only actually eaten by the larva laid inside of it. The adult tarantula hawks are pollinators that only consume plant nectar.) It's as close to a perfect hard counter as you can get in the animal kingdom.

This kind of extremely specific evolutionary advantage-stacking is probably my favorite thing about wasps; it's amazing to me how thoroughly they will specialize into their environmental niche. You'd be tempted to call it cruel how completely the wasp counters the tarantula, but it's not really "cruel." The wasp just is. Nature just is.

Giant wasps are a semi-frequent monster concept in fictional settings, but if giant human-predating wasps really did exist, then they probably wouldn't just be these same wasps but super-sized and aggressive (consider the cazadores from Fallout: New Vegas). Instead, you have to apply the logic, not just copy it. Human-predating wasps would be evolved in contrast to what humans are capable of: they would have some kind of evolutionary circumvention against our vision, against our hearing, and possibly even against weaponry or shelter or social structure. And that sounds much scarier and cooler to me than "what if a bug was big." Just fun bug facts!

[adobe-outdesign]

thinking about how many kids probably go on their Pokemon journeys only to immediately catch some extraordinarily dangerous Pokemon right off the bat

The parents, when their kid is all excited to show them their new friend and they’re expecting something cute like an Eeevee and then they open the pokeball and it’s a fucking Ultra Beast

[godbirdart]

commission for KurojiShitodo

[hometoursandotherstuff]

According to my research, the tarantula hawk earned a top score of four, making its sting almost unbearably painful. It usually only aggravates the unlucky victim for five minutes, so experts suggest that when stung, the only response is to 'lay down and scream.'

[treesbian]

Arbor important question: does the post s1 finale falling out of the wormhole happen and does Keith (and Shiro) have to take care of Kitty on the geyser planet with the large predators OR is she more safe on the castle with Allura (and deaging Coran) OR does calling Zarkon a meanie prevent that (although it is Haggar’s magic)

ok sorry for the late response i had to think on this one.

here is what i think.

yes. haggar did do the wormhole magic. yes the war is over but she's just a huge cunt. now the remaining plot is kitty learning her manners AND haggar just fucking with team voltron every opportunity she gets bc she's mad the war is over. she is waging her own personal war against team voltron specifically. especially kitty. imagine haggar. now imagine her having the nastiest beef with a six year old little girl that happens to look a lot like a japanese bobtail cat. haggar is so cunty that even pulling out the big guns and calling her a big huge meanie doesn't work. lotor is half as cunty as haggar at the very least so when he shows up then kitty calling him a meanie doesn't work but calling him a big huge meanie does. he is so devastated he makes a home for himself on a village planet and becomes a museum curator.

i think she's with keith because she was in the red lion for that final zarkon showdown when she called zarkon a meanie. also allura has no idea what to do with kids already. coran de-aging is enough torture for her i'm not subjecting her to kitty's (objectively really adorable) spunk on top of that. also i'm biased towards the keith & kitty dynamic. also now keith has the added challenge of trying to keep this six year old alive as well as himself and shiro which is a lot of responsibility and i find that entertaining. i like to put him through tribulations.

keith holding kitty in his arms trying to keep them both alive as he bounds across the weird geyser planet with the ground that keeps crumbling and exploding underneath him: patience... yields focus

kitty: (little kid wanting to be independent pout) i have a jet pack too!

keith, holding her tighter: i cannot stress to you enough how much i just don't care.

kitty: :P

[antiqueanimals]

Walt Disney's Living Desert. Written by Jane Werner and illustrated by Campbell Grant. 1954.

Internet Archive

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Tarantula hawk wasps are fearsome predators-- but not for themselves. Adults are nectarivorous, feeding on nectar, and females only hunt tarantulas to provide food for their young. The painful sting which they are so famous for functions as a paralytic in their prey, and an extremely effective deterrent to potential predators, so most individuals are actually quite docile unless seriously threatened.

(Image: A tarantula hawk wasp (Pepsis thisbe) by Robb Hannawacker)

If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a ko-fi!

[guairescp]

Why do all the cutest and coolest insects have the most dangerous bites or stings? It's so unfair

You all cannot tell me in good faith you don't want to be near these animals.

[onenicebugperday]

@glitch-h submitted: Am i correct in assuming this is a tarantula hawk wasp? Found in northern arizona

You are correct! She is lovely