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Project Noah Nature School
Dasymutilla occidentalis
Large Red Velvet Ant (Wingless Female Wasp) that was running about in the sand and rocks of a steep descent. It was about 1 cm long. Bad picture because it was running about so fast, but I was so excited to find one. It has black legs, antennae and mandibles. Family Mutillidae.
Hiking trail on the edge of Los Padres National Forest above Santa Barbara.
One of the species of Dasymutilla, but not D. occidentalis (which is an eastern species and doesn't occur in California). There are 3 species with very similar appearances as a part of a larger Müllerian mimicry ring: D. aureola, D. californica, and D. coccineohirta. The head may not be broader than the thorax, so that may be more suggestive of the latter 2.
Spotted on May 29, 2014
Submitted on Jun 27, 2014
