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Orange Spider Wasp with Huntsman

An orange spider wasp (Cryptocheilus bicolor) dragging a huntsman.

 

"On finding the spider, which may be as large as a huntsman or funnel-web and twice as heavy as itself, the wasp stings and paralyses it, and then drags or flies it back to the burrow. She then lays an egg on the spider's body, and seals it in a chamber or cell at the end of the burrow. The larva hatches and feeds on the body of the spider before pupating in a thin silky cocoon in the cell."

 

Source:

australian.museum/.../animals/insects/spider-wasps/

 

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/biosecurity/plant/bees-and-wasps/spide...

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Uploaded on March 18, 2022
Taken on January 15, 2022