Velvet ants

Description:

Identification: Small to medium (body length 3-18 mm), usually black, often with reddish brown thorax and combination of red, yellow, white or silver spots or band on abdomen. Body extremely hard and coarsely punctured, covered with soft velvet hairs. Females wingless, with box-like thorax, Mutilla astarte being typical. Males of most species, such as Smicromyrme atropos, have dark wings with metallic sheen, and are often diffently coloured from females; in some species males lack abdominal markings. A few hundres species in the region.

Habitat:

Diverse. Females most often seen running about on the ground, males visiting flowers.

Notes:

Biology: Parasitize larvae and pupae of various solitary bees and wasps, pupae of certain flies, moths and beetles, and egg cases of cockroaches. Dolichomutilla sycorax mostly lays it eggs on and parasitizes larvae in large, multi-celled mud nests of wasps such as Sceliphron and Synagris, often found in buildings. It bites its way into a cell, lays and egg on the host's larva or pupa and reseals the cell before leaving. Sting from females are very painful.