[meteorite-list] Creepy crawlies!

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:38:53 -0600
Message-ID: <525CBC5BB55C44DFA785D82F0639B9C3_at_ATARIENGINE2>

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
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Montgomery" <rickmont at earthlink.net>
To: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites at yahoo.com>; "Adam"
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
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" <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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Received on Sat 12 Jan 2013 07:38:53 PM PST