Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1889-06-21
THE TARANTULA KILLER.

tourist described in recent issue of
the Sun isn't solely Mexican pro-
duct" said New Yorker who has
travelled a bit himself. You'll find
that remarkable insect wherever there
are tarantulas, for it seems to owe the
perpetuation of its kind to the pres
ence of that king of spiders. In fact,
it is known by the name of 'tarantula
killer in Texas and other parts where
the big spider has its habitat.
THE most pugnacious birds of the
air give the tarantula wide berth,
and the fercest beasts are content to
leave him unmolested. In fact, the
tarantula seems to defy the entire an
imal kingdom, with the exception of
this giant wasp. The appearance OF
a hawk sailing over barnyard will
not cause a more sudden or frantic
scattering of a brood of chickens to a
place OF safety than will the approach
of a tarantula killer among colony
of these spiders. Whether the taran-
tulas can see their enemy long way
off, or whether they hear the hum of
its wings, or smell the dreaded insect,
| don't know, but whenever a taran-
tula is seen scampering like mad for
his den and closing down its trap door
without delay, it is ten to one that
tarantula killer will be seen sailing
along that way few seconds later.
1T flies up leisurely, its reddish
brown wings spread to their full three
inch sweep, and contrasting striking
ly with its dead black legs and body.
The hiding of the tarantula in his den
does not worry the wasp a bit. 1t
lights at the trap door and has it open
as quickly as the tarantula can open
it himself and walks straightway in.
The big hairy, deadly spider has no
terrors for the wasp. The quality of
the wasp's sting is shown in a start
ling way by its effect on the tarantu-
la, for in five seconds after the killer
has entered the spiders den the tar
antula has succumbed to the thrusts
of the sting, and is dragged out by
the wasp as a butcher would drag a
dead pig out of the pen.
But the strange part of the quick
l.. 80 h. ~, 1n
wasp is, that while the former will
never enjoy the pleasures of life again,
he is not dead. The poison the wasp
injects into the tarantula does not kill
him, but throws him into a trance
from which he will never awaken.
The tarantula is actually embalmed
alive, and if the subsequent processes
the wasp has in store for him prove
abortive in their working, as they
sometimes do, the tarantula will re-
main in that dead and alive condition
ever afterward
Sometimes it happens to suit the
tarantula killer, when it does up its
spider in the latter's den, to leave him
there to carry out the rest Of the pro-
gramme, but usually it drags the tar
antula to some other part of the coun-
try, frequently a mile distant, al
though the spider is many times the
wasp's own weight. When the big
wasp has dragged the spider to the
spot it has selected, it punctures its
victims body at the base of one OF its
hind legs, and lays an egg deep in the
opening. The wasp then digs hole
in the ground and buries the tarantu-
la. Sometimes it hides the spider in
a cleft in the rocks, and plasters the
opening shut with mud. When the
egg is Matched inside the spider the
result is most voracious grub, which
at once begins to eat its way out OF
its storehouse. 1t is as il the spider
had been kept on ice, nice and fresh
in all its flesh and juices. The wasp's
greedy larva devours everything to
the right and left of it. and all that is
ahead of it, and when it einerges from
the tarantula's head there is nothing
left of the spider but its hideous hairy
shell. The grub digs itself out of the
spiders grave, and in time becomes
a tarantula killer, and does the same
act for future supply of wasps that
was done for it,
''Once in a great while the wasp's
egg will not hatch, but that doesn't
change the condition of the tarantu-
la. l saw a tarantula in Texas that
was found in a mud-plastered crack
in rock five years ago. A wasp had
its egg in the spiders body,
but it had been abortive. 1t is not
known how long the tarantula had
lain it's trance when it was discovered,
but when / saw it there were no more
signs of death or decay about it thar
there are about sleeping dog or cat.
1t was full and plump, its legs timber
and flexible, and its eyes bright. All
the elements of life were present, ap-
and yet the spider was prac-
tically as dead as the proverbial door