[3][4] The first notice of a pompilidotoxin variant was made by Konno et.al in 1997 after a survey was conducted of neurotoxins in solitary wasps that inhabit Japan.

[6] Anoplius samariensis is known to live distributed over the globe with reported cases in east-Asia, east and central Europe, and Russia.

This way they can paralyse a wide range of spiders that will then be dragged to the wasp’s nest that is located in the ground, in a cavity of a plant stem, or made from mud.

This suggests an essential role of the endogenous Phe-7 residue in mediating the interaction between the venom toxin and the sodium channel.

[12][13] Although Pompilidotoxins can be extracted from the venom of solitary wasps,[6] where they are made via standard protein synthesis pathways, they can also be obtained via synthetic routes such as a stepwise solid-phase addition method using Fmoc chemistry.

(2000) has suggested that α-PMTX might slow or block the conformational changes that are necessary for the fast inactivation of voltage gated sodium channels.

They hypothesise that this effect could be caused by the α-PMTX binding to similar elements of the neurotoxin receptor site 3 on the extracellular surface of the sodium channel.

[5] However, when the fast inactivation is slowed or blocked by channel blocker like PMTX, the membrane will not repolarize properly, but stay in a depolarized state instead.

[8] Counterintuitively to the drastic effect of thinly winged insect-venom on neurological processes, some toxins of these hymenopteran insects are used in the field of medicine.

An example can be found in tertiapin-Q from the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) which is used in the treatment of pain, multiple sclerosis (MS), and rheumatoid arthritis.

Pompilidotoxins thus provide a special advantage to research, classify, and characterise different isoforms of sodium channels due to their concise and simple structure.

[21] Thus, even though pompilidotoxins are not used as drugs and therefore have no efficacious nor adverse effects, they are medically valuable as a research model to indirectly improve patient well-being.

Social wasps readily attack any threat to their queen and colony and are the only type of insects responsible for medically significant incidents with humans.

[25]  What is known is that being stung by a spider wasp causes local pain and swelling, and some people might have an allergic reaction to the sting which can be dangerous.

Because of these individuals, it is known that though spider wasp venom causes paralysis in their arthropod prey, they inflict intense pain that remains for around five minutes onto vertebrates such as humans.

Entomologist Justin Schmidt created a sting pain index where the Tarantula hawk spider wasp is described as  “Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric.

[26] Dr Sam Robinson had himself stung by the Australian spider-hunting wasp and described the experience as “authoritative, gripping and shockingly powerful”.

[27] Though both insects are related to the PMTXs producing spider wasps, there are no recorded cases of the experience of having Anoplius samariensis or Batozonellus maculifrons administer their PMTXs-containing venom to humans.

The channel of the insect that was tested for the toxin gave an even greater effect, which is quite logical since the spider wasps target arthropods.