Spider hunting Wasp Anoplius viaticus dragging a paralysed Wolf Spider Trochosa terricola
Like 1 Dislike 0 Published on 18 May 2016
Hymenopterans have evolved many highly sophisticated (and ruthless) breeding mechanisms. Spider-hunting Wasps (Pompilidae) need to provide each of their developing larvae with a substantial food-supply in the form of a paralysed spider that is often much larger than the wasp herself. This female Anoplius viaticus has used her sting to immobilise a Wolf Spider Trochosa terricola (itself a fairly fearsome predatory invertebrate) and she is shown in the process of dragging her substantial quarry to a suitable place whereby she will abandon it temporarily before excavating a larval chamber, ovipositing and then covering over the entrance with sand grains so that it cannot be seen. There is some risk of theft by another wasp during this period of abandonment! This reproductive strategy is clearly successful but it certainly looks like hard work.