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Family Mutillidae - Velvet Ants

Velvet Ant - Sphaeropthalma auripilis - male

Pseudomethoca bazoria - Pseudomethoca brazoria - female

Male Cow Killer? - Dasymutilla occidentalis - male

Red ant w black and white abdominal linesp - Sphaeropthalma pensylvanica

Dasymutilla eminentia? - Dasymutilla eminentia

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)

Superfamily Pompiloidea (Spider Wasps, Velvet Ants and allies)

Family Mutillidae (Velvet Ants)

Other Common Names

Velvet Wasps, Solitary Ants

Pronunciation

mew-TILL-ih-dee

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

classification largely follows (1)

Explanation of Names

Mutillidae Latreille 1802

"Velvet Ant" refers to the hairy, ant-like body

Numbers

close to 400 spp. in 18 genera our area;(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) >4,300 spp. in 210 genera total(7)

Size

6‒30 mm

Identification

Females wingless, hairy, and may look like large ants with no node on "waist"

Males look like typical winged wasps, larger than females

sexes are difficult to associate and conspecific males & females often end up in separate genera(8) (more here)

Key to genera in (3); guide to SC fauna in (9)

Range

Worldwide; in NA, mostly southwestern

Habitat

mostly drier areas

Life Cycle

Ectoparasitoids of immature insects, esp. bees and solitary wasps (also flies, limacodid moths, beetles, and cockroaches)(8)

Remarks

Certain species (Dasymutilla occidentalis, D. klugii...) can give a painful sting. The pain varies considerably between species; none of our species is medically significant.(10)

Terms "cow killer" and "cow ant" refer to just one species, D. occidentalis

Print References

(11)

Internet References

Fact sheet (Hertz 2013)(12)

Works Cited

1.	Phylogenomic inference of the higher classification of velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae). Waldren, G.C., Sadler, E.A., Murray, E.A., Bossert, S., Danforth, B.N. & Pitts, J.P. 2023. Systematic Entomology.

2.	Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.

3.	A key to genera and subgenera of Mutillidae (Hymenoptera) in America North of Mexico with description of a new genus Manley D.G., Pitts J.P. 2002. J. Hym. Res. 11: 72-100.

4.	Keys to nearctic Velvet Ants of the genus Dasymutilla Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), with notes on taxonomic changes... Manley D.G. , Williams K.A., Pitts J.P. 2020. Proc. Ent Soc. Wash. 122: 335-414.

5.	Revision of Odontophotopsis Viereck (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), Part 1, with a description of a new Genus Laminatilla James M. Pitts. 2007. Zootaxa 1619(1): 1-43.

6.	Velvet ants of North America Williams, Kevin A; Pan, Aaron D.; & Wilson, Joseph S. 2024. Princeton Field Guides, 145: 440 pp.

7.	Order Hymenoptera. In: Zhang Z-Q (ed) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classif. and survey of taxonomic richness Aguiar AP, Deans AR, Engel MS, Forshage M, Huber JT, Jennings JT, Johnson NF, Lelej AS, Longino JT, Lohrmann V, Mikó I, Ohl M. 2013. Zootaxa 3703: 51–62.

8.	Evolution of the Insects David Grimaldi and Michael S. Engel. 2005.

9.	The velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) of South Carolina Manley D.G. 1991. South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Tech. Bull. 1100, 55 pp.

10.	The Sting of the Wild: The Story of the Man Who Got Stung for Science Justin O. Schmidt. 2016. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, MD.

11.	Phylogeny and higher classification of Mutillidae (Hymenoptera) based on morphological reanalyses Brothers D.J., Lelej A.S. 2017. J. Hymenopt. Res. 60: 1-97.

12.	University of Florida: Featured Creatures

Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, Beatriz Moisset, Phillip Harpootlian, Chris Wirth, Chuck Entz, waspGeorge, Aaron Schusteff, v belov, PaleoJon, Nathaniel Green
Last updated 24 June, 2025 - 7:51pm

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