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Spider-hunting Wasps

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A photograph of the Spider-hunting Wasp (_Auplopus carbonarius_) with its prey.

The Spider-hunting Wasp (Auplopus carbonarius) with its prey. This genus of wasp amputate the legs off the spider before carrying it to the nest.
Photograph by Fritz Geller-Grimm licensed under Creative Commons.

An arachnophobe's best friends would be the Spider-hunting wasps or pompilids - although they can give a nasty sting.

Most species excavate a nest in the soil; the mandible is the main digging organ, the combs on the legs are used as a rake and the abdomen used to as a trowel to smooth the interior.

This group is adapted to swift, agile running, flying only rarely, and spiders seem to react with fear when confronted by them. Spiders are paralysed and buried alive, with the wasp's larva slowly devouring them. Gruesomely, the genus Auplopus will amputate the legs off the spider before transporting it to the nest.

A good identification feature for this group is that the female antennae characteristically curl after death.

Other members of the Vespoidea superfamily

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