While in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona near the town of New River, I noticed a large black-blue wasp with an orange wing-set. It flew purposefully around, entering several tiny burrows in the ground, and then quickly exited to examine another hole. It reminded me of a wasp I had heard about in a nature documentary from years ago called the tarantula hawk.
A quick trip to Wikipedia confirmed that my specimen matched the description of the tarantula hawk, also called pepsis wasp, of the genera Pepsis. I took some cell-phone pictures which, once cropped, rendered an extremely blurry image of her.
She was very active in the 38 C heat, and while not aggressive was nonetheless disturbed by my presence. That's why I couldn't get a very good close-up.
These insects belong to a special family of solitary spider wasps called Pompilidae, all of which prey upon spiders. The tarantula hawk is so named because the female stings, paralyzes, and then relocates the arachnids to her nest where she thereupon lays her eggs and leaves. The young larvae feed on the still living spider as their first meal.
Further reading revealed that the tarantula hawk's sting is so painful that it is rivaled only by that of the bullet ant in Brazil.
Maybe keeping my distance wasn't a bad call.
