Pepsinae (Subfamily)

Mud-nesting Spider Wasps, Tarantula-hawk Wasps & Allies at suppressed

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Identification history

Pepsinae (Subfamily)	21 Apr 2025	DiBickers
Fabriogenia sp. (genus)	20 Jan 2025	MichaelMulvaney
Pompilidae (family)	20 Jan 2025	TimL

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User's notes

At Mulligans Flat Woolshed a large female Spider Wasp was sighted searching the bark of a dead tree. A huntsman spider suddenly took off from beneath the bark in front of the spider and then hid beneath the bark about a metre away. The wasp followed the spider and eventually found it under the bark. In the second image the wasp approached the spider from the side, and stung the spider before it could manoeuvre around within the small space to face the wasp. The wasp then took off back up the tree and returned three minutes later, checked that the spider was effectively paralysed, and then got to work removing the spider’s legs to make it easier to drag away. The wasp straightened out some of the spider’s legs and then used its jaws to remove the legs one at a time. The final image shows the paralysed spider with two of the legs having been removed. Additional details of the spider are shown in following sighting 4640043.

2 comments

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

20 Jan 2025

What a gruesome way to go

DiBickers wrote:

21 Jan 2025

Fabulous photos

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Sighting information

1 Abundance
TimL Recorded by
Collections
TimL NatureMapr Canberra & Southern Tablelands Spider wasps (Pompilidae) Wasps (Hymenoptera, Apocrita) Insects

Additional information

25mm to 50mm Animal size
Female Gender
Alive / healthy Animal health

Species information

Pepsinae (Subfamily) Scientific name
Mud-nesting Spider Wasps, Tarantula-hawk Wasps & Allies Common name
Unknown
Unknown
Non-invasive or negligible
Machine learning

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Queensland

Northern Territory

Western Australia

South Australia

Victoria

Tasmania