[meteorite-list] Creepy crawlies!

[Richard Montgomery]

Adam and List, (nice off-topic desert fun)...

YES!!   While collecting (insects) at Paramid Lake years ago, I nabbed a 
Pompillidae (tarantula hawk) who's body-length was 2 inches+, and it 
actually looked like a bird flying around....and it stung me.

Pain wasn't even the word for it.  I remember that is felt like an electric 
shock, and literally knocked my off my feet.  Oddly, that's all I remember. 
It now lives somewhere in the UC Davis Bohart Museum.

They literally carry tarantulas away to provision the nest for young-uns.

See you all in Tucson!
Richard Montgomery


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites at yahoo.com>
To: "Adam" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 6:40 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Creepy crawlies!


I have been bitten (more like chewed on) by Wind Scorpion on my large toe 
when I feel asleep on my back porch. Left a distinctive scar that only a 
creature with two independent sets of jaws can deliver. Surprisingly, it 
wasn't as painful as being stung by bark scorpion which feels like somebody 
is burning you with a hot coal for hours. They are afraid of nothing and 
will attack anything that moves. I had one chasing me around my back patio. 
It moved so quickly that I could not tell what it was until I trapped it.


You think Sun Spiders and Wind Scorpions are bad. On a one to ten scale, a 
sting from a Tarantula Hawk rates a ten as far as pain goes while a bee 
sting only rares a one or two and a scorpion sting rates a three or four. I 
can only imagine one of these things flying through the air carrying a giant 
tarantula spider payload. If you startle it while it is carrying the alive 
spider back to its nest, it is liable to drop it on you in mid flight.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2010/07/16/tarantula-hawks-deliver-the-big-sting/
I have only seen two of these. One landed on my sandal while I was wearing 
it and the other I smashed onto the the side of my head when it buzzed me 
under a streetlamp. What a mess! I identified it through the giant red wings 
that I combed out of my hair. Thankfully I was not stung by either one. A 
sting from one of these will make the strongest man curl up in the fetal 
position and cry "mama".

Be Careful,

Adam
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