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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps » Ants, Stinging Wasps, and Hornets (Vespoidea) » Velvet Ants (Mutillidae)

Family Mutillidae - Velvet Ants

Dasymutilla occidentalis - female Dasymutilla occidentalis - female velvet ant - Timulla - female Unknown Mutillid 2 - Dasymutilla chattahoochei - female ? Sawfly ? - Timulla - male Mutillid - Dasymutilla asopus - female What kind of velvet ant. - Dasymutilla californica Reality Check: Dasymutilla sackenii? - Dasymutilla - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps)
Superfamily Vespoidea (Ants, Stinging Wasps, and Hornets)
Family Mutillidae (Velvet Ants)
Numbers
Approximately 435 species in North America, most in Southwest. Worldwide, about 230 genera (or subgenera), 8,000 species Univ. Florida.
Size
6-30 mm
Identification
Females wingless and very hairy, resembling large ants. Note lack of node (bump) on "waist" between abdomen and thorax. Ants have one or two nodes there.

Males winged, less hairy, look more like typical wasps, larger than females.
Food
Adults (males at least) are observed taking nectar.
Life Cycle
Parasitoids of other solitary hymenoptera (bees and wasps). Sometimes reported to attack other groups as well, e.g., beetles, flies (Univ. Florida).
Remarks
Some velvet ants can give an excruciating sting if handled
See Also
Scoliid Wasps, Scoliidae
Ants, Formicidae
Print References
Manley, D. F. 1991, The velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) of South Carolina: South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Tech. Bull. 1100, 55 pp.
Borror and White, p. 344, plate 15 (1)
Bland, p. 379 (2)
Internet References
Univ. Florida--Entomology 3005
Everything about
Univ. Florida Featured Creatures--Mutillidae --Velvet Ants
Works Cited
1.A Field Guide to Insects
By Richard E. White, Donald J. Borror, Roger Tory Peterson
2.How to Know the Insects
By Roger G. Bland, H.E. Jaques
Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, Phillip Harpootlian, Chris Wirth
Last updated 7 June, 2007 - 2:11am

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