Thanks!! I was so excited when I saw this insect because I'd read how cryptic velvet ants tend to be. I then proceeded to misidentify a spider wasp (http://bugguide.net/node/view/331146) as a velvet ant because of its bold color.

See this post of a closely related spider wasp, where I (and another editor) made the exact same mistake as you.

Happy to get a name on this one for you, Stephen. New discoveries are always exciting -- D. alesia is a very cool species.

Thanks. It was very hard to photograph because it moved at incredible speed. I even captured it and tried photographing it in an enclosed space, but was not able to get a good shot of the abdomen and the head and thorax together. I didn't want it to die, so I let it go after several tries. (this is what happens when you try to photograph something like this late at night on a week night, knowing you have to get up and go to work the next morning!:-)

I totally empathize with your difficulties in getting a good shot on these guys, even when contained in a small space. (If it makes you feel any better, you did better than me when I tried to photograph this little one that I found running around my house.) Actually, the only time I've managed really nice photos of mutillids has been after rescuing them from my landlord's pool, when they are more intent on grooming and getting dry than on running around.

I am not even close to an expert, but for whatever it's worth, I think Pseudomethoca is a good guess... But, I also think that it looks like a pretty decent match for Dasymutilla alesia. Take a look at the images and see what you think. Did the posterior end of the wasp look similar? If you have other photos (even if the quality isn't great) which show the latter portion of the abdomen, I'd go ahead and add that to your post in order to improve your odds of getting an ID.

Actually, after I posted it, I saw the Dasymutilla category and looked at them and realized this was more likely then the other. The spot pattern was what made me change my mind. As I recall, and I'll have to check to be sure, I'm quite sure the distal abdomen was as is seen in the other photos of Daysmutilla alesia.