for the ID, Kevin. Your expertise is quite helpful to this site. You are appreciated. Is there a key to FL species you could recommend to me? This is my first documented species of this kind for my collection.

Your best bet would be a paper from the 1980s by Don Manley. It is a key to the Mutillidae of South Carolina. There are about 5-6 species that live in Florida that the key does not include, but other than getting the original keys to each genus it is your best bet.

George, would you mind explaining how to differentiate Pseudomethocha from Dasymutilla and Timulla? Thanks.

For females:

Dasymutilla has a definite constriction between the 1st and 2nd metasomal segments. The eyes are round. There are a few look-alikes, such as Sphaeropthalma pensylvanica, but these characters work for the most part for images.

Pseudomethoca has no constriction between the 1st and 2nd metasomal segments, eyes are round, the mesosoma is narrowed posteriorly, head is as wide as mesosoma, sometimes slightly larger/smaller but close.

Timulla has no constriction between the 1st and 2nd metasomal segments, eyes are very ovate, the mesosoma is narrowed medially and is somewhat rectangular (very distinctive, you can see this in nearly every female photo here).

Males are more difficult from images. Timulla males are fairly easy to identify with some exceptions, most of the female characters apply. Dasymutilla and some Sphaeropthalma are similar; which cannot be separated by photographs sometimes.

There are 20 genera in America, so these characters won't work all of the time on their own. For most of the images on BG they should work well.

This is so helpful to me as I have been trying to differntiate between mutillids. Thanks for taking the time to explain this in detail. Great job, and thanks for the ID. I'm learning!

Happy to help, Scott! I'm still learning as well; Mutillidae can be a difficult family.