Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#156926

"It looks like a bug carrying a cotton ball", said the ever-observant Julian - Dasymutilla sackenii - Female
Santiago Oaks Regional Park, Orange, Orange County, California, USA
November 12, 2007
My nine-year-old grandson and I were exploring a park that had a severe burn (90%) about six months ago. I explained that what he'd spotted - and I'd missed - was a female velvet ant, but that I didn't know its species. What I couldn't explain was why this little wasp was on a charred tree, apparently dining on sap. (The tree was damaged, but undefeated. Sap was flowing from a spot about seven feet above ground, where a fairly large limb was recently sawed off.)

So, who's the velvet ant? And what's she doing?

Images of this individual: tag all
Velvet ant - Dasymutilla sackenii - female Velvet ant - Dasymutilla sackenii - female

A beautiful Mutilid female wa
A beautiful Mutilid female wasp. AKA: A velvet ant. Nice shots.

 
Thanks, Mark
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