Tarantula Hawks / Pompilidae

These imposing wasps are by far MY personal favorites
amongst the huge and varied order Hymenoptera.
Spider wasps are specialist predators upon a wide
variety of 8-legged foes. No spider (no matter the
size or speed) is truly safe from harm when one of
these fellows spots it.

A well placed stab from the business end of one of
these aggressive hunters generally ends with the wasp
being the victor of most skirmishes.

Here are 3 modestly sized individuals from my collection.



To give some scale to what you see the smallest of 
these three is on the left and has a wingspan of 72mm
along with a body of 40mm from head to abdomen tip.
(from El Reno., Oklahoma) (July.14.1951)

The others are yet a bit larger and are from Peru.
Still yet, there are even bigger ones with wingspans
exceeding 102+mm. Those tackle the largest spiders
of South America which belong to the genera Theraphosa,
Lasiodora, and Pamphobeteus.

Here, I present one of those tremendous "bombers" that
few things EVER dare mess with...



These helpful and imposing creatures keep natures
"checks and balances" in place and are just another
fascinating part of the palette of life on our earth.