Several species of the wasps known as "tarantula hawks" inhabit the desert lands of the southwest. They of course eat Tarantulas.Tarantula hawk stings are considered to be the most painful of any North American insect. Christopher Starr wrote an article entitled, "A Pain Scale for Bee, Wasp and Ant Stings." On a scale of one to four, Pepsis formosa was one of only two insects to rate a four. One researcher described the tarantula hawk’s sting this way: "To me, the pain is like an electric wand that hits you, inducing an immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one’s ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations.
Named on account of its powerful and potent sting, which is said to be as painful as being shot with a bullet. The pain caused by this insect's sting is purported to be greater than that of any other Hymenopteran, and is ranked as the most painful according to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. It is described as causing "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours". It lives in trees and thus can and will fall on you to scare you away from its hive--the one you didn't know was there, because it's in a tree. Before it does this, it shrieks at you. This ant, you see, can shriek.
The currently known largest scorpion. Like it’s namesake, it can be found in India. It can reach to almost 1 ft in length and can weigh to as much as 57 grams.
One of the rarest birds still alive, the po’ouli. At last count, the known po’ouli population was six. And with time running out, experts are scrambling to find a way to save the species from extinction.