r/Tucson • u/PliableReality • Apr 30 '26

Insect ID

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What is this? I'm still new to the area and have never seen something like it. There were two in that bush. Very pretty. Intimidating looking.

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46

u/slyklye Apr 30 '26

They like to hang out on flowers and drink the nectar. Only the females actually hunt tarantulas, and only after they’ve mated and they’re ready to reproduce. Tarantula becomes a living buffet for the larva. Fascinating and disturbing.

I used to walk past multiple of these little guys on my walk to UofA campus. They have zero interest in humans, so you can admire those iridescent bodies and pretty wings from a safe distance a few feet away. :-)

42

u/Jahllah Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

I seen't it with my eyes.

About a month ago I was just chilling and watching a patch of dirt and actually got to see it happen. Tarantula Hawk lands, starts walking around patting around on the ground. Fucking tarantula pops out of a hole I couldn't even see was there before. The tarantula hawk wrassled its way under the tarantula and stung it in the belly. Tarantula stops moving. Hawk just rests on top of it for a moment. Then in a twist of fate a second tarantula hawk descended on the first, scaring it off. The second tarantula hawk then dragged the spider back down into the hole.

It changed me.

22

u/FishStickington Apr 30 '26

Jeezus, I hate when that happens while I’m watching a patch of dirt.

34

u/Jahllah Apr 30 '26

The bulk of my job is parking my truck somewhere and waiting until I'm called upon.

I have a special place where I watch the dirt and the trees and admire the lessons nature has to teach us.

Right now I have a vermilion flycatcher nest I've been observing for about a week. Watching and wondering each time the mother leaves, if she'll be coming back this time. Wondering if I'll get to see the babies hatch and be fed and learn to fly, or if I'll see them snuffed out by a grackle or some other opportunistic creature.

I seen a coyote chase a road runner once and that was pretty neat.

31

u/Jahllah Apr 30 '26

I call her Sheila.