This reminds me of the bit in Querencia where Betsy dropped a Pepsis in Steve’s lap. She thought it was a Pepsis mimic Steve was looking for. Steve freaked because of his allergy to their stings.
Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.[9] One researcher described the pain as “…immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one’s ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations.”
Allergy, or not, a pepsis sting is not to be trifled with.
Pepsis grossa is a very large species of pepsine spider wasp from the southern part of North America, south to northern South America. It preys on tarantula spiders, giving rise to the name tarantula hawk for the wasps in the genus Pepsis and the related Hemipepsis. Only the females hunt, so only they are capable of delivering a sting, which is considered the second most painful of any insect sting; scoring 4.0 on the Schmidt sting pain index compared to the bullet ant’s 4.0+.[2] It is the state insect of New Mexico
