Alice Springs Fauna •
This was originally thought to be a wingless female Greater Black Velvet Ant (Ephutomorpha formicaria), belonging to the family Mutillidae. The male of the species have wings. The current view (Dec 2023) is that this insect belongs to the tribe Dasymutillini. The Dasymutilla is a wasp genus that belong to the family Mutillidae.
The common name of “velvet ant” refers to wasp species that have a resemblance to ants, with their dense pile of hair, which most often is bright scarlet or orange, but may also be black, white, silver, or gold.

There appears to be a consensus that the original post was incorrectly ID, and belongs to: Tribe Dasymutillini, a member of Velvet Ants Family Mutillidae. See iNaturalistAU observation: inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/193902948 |
This specimen was rescued from a swimming pool in Alice Springs. Once she came to, she was off… a very quick mover.





- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Subclass: Pterygota
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Suborder: Apocrita
- Infraorder: Aculeata
- Superfamily: Pompiloidea
- Family: Mutillidae
- Subfamily: Sphaeropthalminae
- Tribe: Dasymutillini
- Genus: Dasymutilla
Footnote & References
- Many thanks to Gavin Pitts for help with ID, member of Entomology Australia “Invertebratology”, Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/507004496955277/
- Tribe Dasymutillini, ausemade, iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/193902948
- Ephutomorpha formicaria (Fabricius, 1775), Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/Ephutomorpha formicaria
- Ephutomorpha formicaria, iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/490817-Ephutomorpha-formicaria
Alice Springs WaspsAbispa ephippium Agriomyia maculata Bembicinae Bethylidae Blue Hairy Flower Wasp Cryptocheilus Cryptocheilus bicolor Delta latreillei Delta philantes Eumeninae Liris (Wasp) Mutillidae Mud Nests and Potter Wasps Orchid Dupe Wasp Paralastor (Potter Wasp) Pison Pseudabispa bicolor ssp. nigrocinctoides Sceliphron laetum Sphex (Wasp) Thynnid Flower Wasps Velvet Ants Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris radula) Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris tasmaniensis)
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