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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps » Vespoidea » Velvet Ants (Mutillidae)
Photo#77807
Nocturnal velvet ant? - male
Copyright © 2006 Jim McClarin

Nocturnal velvet ant? - Male
Organ Mountains foothills, Doña Ana County, New Mexico, USA
August 6, 2006
Size: 11 mm or so
I saw dozens of these flying insects in the dim lighting of my UV lights setup, not knowing what they were. They weren't be*etles, that's all I knew. I finally decided to take a photo of one, which, upon later examination, turned out to be a winged (male) mutillid wasp. William had instructed me to collect any I found. Unfortunately, none showed up at my second UV light location :-(
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Contributed by Jim McClarin on 17 September, 2006 - 7:54pm
Last updated 15 October, 2008 - 1:11pm

Moved
Moved from Velvet Ants.
… George Waldren, 14 February, 2008 - 7:25pm login or register to post comments

Nice photo
This is definitely a nocturnal mutillid, to me it looks a little bit like Odontophotpsis melicausa, but there are only 2-3 people on the planet who can identify these to species, and many times you need to see the genitalia to correctly identify these critters.
… Kevin Williams, 19 September, 2006 - 9:21am login or register to post comments

 
Thanks, Kevin.
Are you confident of genus? If so, I'll place on a genus page.
… Jim McClarin, 19 September, 2006 - 5:01pm login or register to post comments

 
not confident at all
While the genera are definitely easier to identify than the species with a microscope, from a photograph it is almost always impossible to get these down to genus.
… Kevin Williams, 20 September, 2006 - 9:14am login or register to post comments

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