Thanks for the input, Natalie! I will await further commentary...

George Waldren who's monitoring our v-ants asked to put pix for his review to the mutillid fam.page; he's around and will see it soon

is as specific as I can get. Definitely need Kevin's expertise on these!

This is Photomorphus obscurus, excellent find! The cloudy wings, reddish body color, distribution, and what you can tell of the mesosternal processes from this picture match that species.

With my sub-par images, I was only hoping for genus, so I can't tell you how pleased I am to get a species ID. Thanks, Kevin!

I added a fourth blurry image which at least gives another glimpse at the "cloudy wings". I think I understand which portion of the anatomy the mesosternum is, but I'm having a bit of trouble finding a definition for what the "mesosternal processes" are... Care to take a shot at explaining it to me?

Basically, you need to look at the underside of the thorax, between the middle pair of legs and front legs. In this photo, from the side, you can tell that there is a bump sticking down there. If you look at that area under a microscope, there should be a pair of transverse ridges protruding downward.

A general rule for the common nocturnal velvet ant genera: unarmed mesosternum = Sphaeropthalma, spines on mesosternum = Odontophotopsis; something funky = Photomorphus. There are tons of smaller genera and species that don't fit the pattern, but this works for about 70-80% of the nocturnal Mutillidae.

I hope this helps.

I would love to read "something funky" when going through a key! LOL! Congrats on the great find, Harsi, and thanks so much, Kevin, for sharing your expertise.

Again, more than I hoped for. Thank you for taking the time to educate me.

Thank you for asking, I always get excited to discuss these fascinating wasps.

I'll keep my finger's crossed and wait for Kevin, but I'm afraid I gave him pretty lousy photos to work with.