Fight to the death [ video added ]

[Aargent]

We have just witnessed the most amazing sight. I don't know who started it but a fight between a hornet and a tarantula was taking place about a yard from us. The hornet won. After the kill it kept going away and coming back, it then dragged the dead tarantula behind a pot and hid it. I presume it will keep coming back to eat it. Absolutely amazing. Nature in the raw.

[Dominic]

Shame you couldn't film it. Would have been quite a scene! Mind you, if you had been filming it you wouldn't have been able to appreciate it so much yourself.

How big was the spider?

[Aargent]

Full size. I was sure it would win.

[Aargent]

I have done a bit of reading. Apparently what happens is the hornet paralyses the spider flips it over and drags it to a burrow, lays an egg then seals it up. The egg hatches and the young hornet eats the spider as it grows leaving the vital organs till last, to keep it as fresh as possible. Lovely. In this contest the spider never wins.

[MikeH]

Hi Alastair,
(long time (2008)... looked at your villa before you bought it)

It was probably not a hornet; most likely it was a tarantula killer wasp. They have an uncanny ability to locate tarantulas. A few years ago, I watched one in my garden. It was flying back and forth around one spot on a scrubby bank of earth. I could see nothing of interest. ...Until a tarantula popped out of a hole. The wasp was on it in seconds, performing the same ritual that you observed, fearlessly.

They are impressive wasps. I sometimes see them around my garden lights (while I'm photographing moths). But they've never bothered me. Guess I don't smell of tarantula!

All best,
Regards to Ruth
Mike Hardman

[Aargent]

Hi Mike, been a long time, . Hope you are well we are both as well as can be expected.

Thanks for the info my knowledge of dangerous looking large flying insects is zilch.

This is more or less what was going on. DON'T open if you are squeamish.

[MikeH]

Here's one of the wasps (Hemipepsis sp.), in my garden in 2012;
distinctive pattern and a fair bit bigger than a hornet