It's the New Mexico State Insect:
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/New_Mexico/Tarantula_hawk_wasp.html
Not exactly a warm and welcoming symbol.
Not complaining. I live in Illinois and our
State Fossil is the equally attractive Tully Monster:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/tullys-mystery-monster/
Sterling K. Webb
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Montgomery" <[email protected]>
To: "Adam Hupe" <[email protected]>; "Adam"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2013 12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Creepy crawlies!
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" <[email protected]>
To: "Adam" <[email protected]>
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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