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HYMENOPTERA, Mutillidae (Stephans 1829) - (Vespoidea) (grouped with Sapygidae) -- Description & Statistics Mutillidae is family of
wasps whose wingless females appear as ants. The name "velvet ant"
refers to dense body hair that may be various colored from red to white..
They inflict an extremely painful sting,
Ancient velvet ants occur in Dominican Republic amber (25 to 40
million years old). Mutillids occur worldwide, with a total of ca. 5025species,
mostly in the tropics. They are common in desert and sandy areas, with most
of the over 405 North American species found in the Southwest, and adjacent
parts of Mexico, with others occurring in sandy parts of every other state in
the USA and Canada; the same habitat where their hosts, ground-nesting bees
and wasps, are most diverse. Many are
nocturnal, especially in desert areas. These insects invade the
nests of wasps and bees but their integument is very tough which protects
them against stings. The males have wings but females are wingless. They
exhibit great sexual dimorphism; the males and females are so different that
it is difficult to associate the two sexes of a species unless they are
captured while mating. Males of some species are much larger than the
females. Only the females sting
with their ovipositor. A structure on
the metasoma is used to produce a squeaking, or chirping sound when
disturbed. Both sexes bear hair-lined grooves on the side of the metasoma
called felt lines. The segments of the female mesosoma are uniquely fused. Mature
wasps feed on nectar. Although some species are nocturnal, female mutillids
are usually observed scurrying about during the day. Females of Tricholabiodes
thisbe are sometimes active until near sunset. Guido Nonveiller (1963)
suggested that Mutillidae are stenothermic and thermophilic; they may not
avoid light but rather are active during temperatures which occur only after
sunset but on cool overcast days could occur earlier. They are social.
Females enter an insect nest, typically a ground-nesting bee or wasp
nest, and deposits eggs near the larvae or pupae. The young develop as an idiobiont ectoparasitoid,
eventually killing and eating its immobile host. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = References: Please refer to
<biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL
Library ] Ferguson,
G. 1962. Univ. Calif. Publ. Ent. 27: 1-92 Hurd, P. D.
1951. Calif. Insect Survey
Bull. 1: 89-118 Lorus J.
Milne, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and
Spiders (Audubon Society Field Guide) (Turtleback)(1980) Knopf. ISBN 0-394-50763-0. Mickel,
C. 1928. U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 143: 1-303. Nonveiller, G.
Catalogue of the Mutillidae, Myrmosidae and Bradynobaenidae of the
Neotropical Region including Mexico (Insecta: Hymenoptera). SPB Academic
Publishing bv, the Netherlands, pp. 1–150. Schuster,
R. 1958. Ent. Amer. (n.s.) 37: 1-130. |