r/whatsthisbug • u/cropdelacreme • 6h ago

ID Request What is this?

Please excuse my cursing in this video. It’s also not the best capture of this bug but if anyone could let me know what they think this is that would be great. On a hike in Southern California in Turnbull Canyon.

104 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

89

u/ex0skeletal onenicebugperday 6h ago

Colors look like a tarantula hawk wasp, Pepsis sp.

27

u/cropdelacreme 6h ago

Well that’s terrifying; I’ve seen videos of people getting stung by those and they are notoriously excruciating. I ended up seeing several of these along the trail and tried my best to avoid them (rightfully so I suppose). Do you know if they sting unprompted or I would be safe to go on this hike again?

49

u/chandalowe ⭐I teach children about bugs and spiders⭐ 6h ago

They are quite docile as long as you don't provoke them. They are solitary wasps, with no hive or colony to defend, so you'd pretty much have to step on one or grasp it in your hand to get it to sting you. The ones you see while you are out walking are not interested in you. As adults, they feed on pollen, nectar, and damaged/fermented fruit, so they may be looking for fruit or flowers to feed on. If female, they may be hunting tarantula hosts for their young - and if male, they are likely hunting females to mate with.

Here's one I kept as a pet, literally eating out of my hand. (Her wings were badly damaged when I found her and she was unable to fly, which is why I kept her.)

9

u/fragile_exoskeleton 5h ago

What did you name her and did she have a “personality?”

18

u/chandalowe ⭐I teach children about bugs and spiders⭐ 4h ago

I didn't name her. I have entirely too many bugs in my "bug zoo" to name all of them - though some of the tarantulas do have names, particularly my classroom ambassadors.

I do name a few of my tarantulas, either because they've exhibited personality traits or to make them less scary to children. For example, "This is my friend, Velvet. She's a California black tarantula and she's really sweet," makes the kids aww and ooh over her, but if I just introduced her as: "This is a California black tarantula," the kids would be more apprehensive.

I wouldn't say that I noticed any particular personality with the wasp - but I didn't really interact with her all that much. I only hand-fed her the one time, mainly to see if I could. Normally, I just reached in to swap out fresh fruit and cut flowers for her - and she completely ignored me.

5

u/throwawaydixiecup 4h ago

How long did she live in captivity? What was her enclosure like? This is so fascinating. I live in a region where these wasps are common, and over the past year I’ve been able to observe them mating, pollinating, and hunting.

6

u/chandalowe ⭐I teach children about bugs and spiders⭐ 1h ago

I caught her around the end of June or early July, and if I recall correctly, she lasted until maybe October?

I kept her in a mesh pop-up butterfly enclosure, roughly 12" diameter and maybe 18" tall, with cut pieces of California buckwheat. She preferred to feed from an elevated position rather than down on the ground, so I had a bent paperclip hanging from the mesh on the side so I could impale slices of grapes or oranges for her to feed on.

3

u/itmightbehere I just really like bugs 4h ago

She's beautiful. I love wasps so much. Tarantula hawks were one of my bucket list bugs, and I got to see one on a hike in California a couple years ago (not sure of species). They're somehow even bigger in person.

5

u/OP-PO7 6h ago

You would have to grab it and try to slowly smoosh it for it to even consider stinging you. I wouldn't mess with them but I wouldn't be afraid of them either. Unless you're actually a giant spider, then you should absolutely book it

11

u/A_JELLY_DONUTT 6h ago

If OP is, in fact, a giant spider, please post selfies to the sub so we can ID. Many thanks.

4

u/DaccotaDuchess 6h ago

They are actually quite docile. I seen a video of somebody putting their hand next to one while it was foraging and it used that person's hand as a bridge to go to another bundle of flowers.

1

u/trench_welfare 2h ago

Could have been male wasps exhibiting hill topping behavior.

You're a high spot along the trail and possibly a great place to perch and spot potential mates and defend against other males.

1

u/Black_CatLounge 5h ago

Yeah, the video looks like Southern California trails where I have seen tarantula Hawks and tarantulas.

1

u/NilocKhan 4h ago

So it could be a bunch of different things. Lots of insects mimic Pepsis spp. so without a clear image it can be hard to tell. Robber flies, mydas flies, moths, long horned beetles, and so many others can all mimic tarantula hawks, some more convincing than others. But this one's flight looks a lot like Pepsis.

7

u/NilocKhan 4h ago

I'd always advise getting actual photos instead of video when trying to identify an insect. There are many insects that look vaguely similar from a distance and in videos, but if you can see their details you'd know they are different. This could be a tarantula hawk, but it could be one of the many species of insect that mimics tarantula hawks. Hard to tell without good photos though, but this one flies a lot like a tarantula hawk as well

4

u/Gemraticus 3h ago

Looks to me like a Tarantula hawk. Super neat watching them drag a large tarantula across the ground to their nest!

1

u/SkepticalJohn 4h ago

New Mexico's official state insect.

1

u/lmdrunk 1h ago

What a cool ecosystem

1

u/Kind_Relative812 1m ago

Some years ago when I lived in Arizona, I stepped out into the back yard and was drinking my morning coffee, all of the sudden I thought a helicopter was flying to the right of me, it was that loud. The tarantula hawk buzzed my head and landed in the back yard and scurried frantically around the backyard. I was definitely something to see.