Enormous tarantula hawk wasp carts off a dying huntsman spider in Bronte, Sydney | Daily Mail Online
- The image, taken in Bronte, Sydney, shows the orange wasp dragging huntsman
- Uploaded to Reddit on Wednesday, it already has been shared 37,000 times
- The tarantula hawk wasp species immobilises a huntsman spider with a sting
- It lays an egg inside the alive spider which hatches, the larva then eats it alive
The image, taken in Bronte, Sydney, shows the orange spider wasp carting the paralysed huntsman back to its den.
The species of wasp immobilises their spider prey with a sting and drags it to its nest.
- There the female wasp uses the spider's body as a living host.
What is a spider wasp?
Spider wasps or pompilid wasps get their common name from their tendencies to hunt and kill spiders
Spider wasps prey on spiders much larger than themselves but also eat plants and leaves
They have a potentially painful sting, but aren't aggressive and are unlikely to attack humans
There are many varieties of spider wasps around the world, including in Australia, Britain and North America
It lays an egg inside the alive spider which hatches. The larva then eats it alive from inside out.
The wasps are incredibly strong and can drag a spider twice their own weight.
The image was uploaded to Reddit on Wednesday and already has been shared 37,000 times.
It has received around 4,000 comments, many from people in the US and UK shocked at the wildlife that lives in Australia.
One commenter wrote: 'I think the best part is knowing its all the way in Australia.. and it can't hurt us here.'
Another added: 'Best part about this post? We all knew it was Australia without reading the description. We just knew.'
Earlier this year a video went viral showing a spider wasp dragging a similarly-sized huntsman up the netting of a door.
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Spider wasps gained their name for there tendencies to hunt and kill spiders much larger than themselves
Australia
