it is quite beautiful, its in my collection but the collector was M. washbauer and A. Hardy. Dasymutilla nocturna at some point will merge with D. arenivaga.

Really? Have you seen them in copulo? I trust you but what's the evidence?


PS: I was just comparing some of my precious few Mutillids and Bradynobaenids with your pics, and I found a little dermestid larva. I don't think he's done any/much damage, but I flipped out and popped the box in the freezer. I guess my dorm room isn't the best place for specimens... :P

DNA testing was done to prove they were the same. D. Nocturna is just an isolated variation, subspecies if you will.

Oh so it's definitive. Do you know who did that testing? I'm interested in knowing who's doing current mutillid work (but I already know [of] the people on bugguide who are)

the people are Kevin Williams and Dr. James Pitts. they are redefining the mutillids.

It's going to be interesting seeing how many synonymies there will be since many species are just different color varieties of one species. I found a citation of a presentation that Kevin and Dr. Pitts are giving in a few days that D. occidentalis, D. klugii, D. calorata and D. clotho are likely the same species!

Hopefully there will be a revision of the Nearctic Dasymutilla in the near future.