The spider wasp is one of the several kind of hunting wasp that use spiders, crickets,and other insects this way.
One genus,the pepsis of the south western United States, takes on tarantulas with leg spans of 13 centimetres and wins.
Although the spider wasp lives on flower nectar, the female provides large spiders for her larvae to eat.She manages this feat by paralysing a spider much larger than she is with a sting from her poisonous barb.
She then digs a tunnel,places the paralysed spider at the bottom,and lays an agg on top of it.The spider will still be alive,harmless and edible,a few days later when the young wasp hatches and needs food.
Knocked to the ground ,the spider is at a disadvantage and struggles to escape.The wasp pins the spider on its back.Standing on her hind legs and curling her own abdomen forward,the wasp delivers a paralysing sting to the spider's abdomen.
The spider tries to defend itself against the attacking wasp but can not scare the wasp away.At last the wasp knocks the spider out of the web.
The spider wasp challenges an Argiope amoena spider ,provoking it by flying at the spider.The wasp advances and backs off repeatedly.
The wasp drags or flies the spider,which can be twice her own weight,to her nesting site,she drops the paralysed live spider nearby and begins to dig,occasionally checking the spider to make sure ants do not steal it.
When the burtow is dug,the wasp pushes the spider to the bottom of it.She then lays her egg on the spider's abdomen, fills in the burrow,and hide the entrance with sand or wood chips.when the egg hatches.The larva will feed on the tissue of the spider.
