MutillidaeAglaotilla Bothriomutilla rugicollis (Mutillid Wasp) Dasymutillini
Referred to as Mutillid Wasps, the Mutillidae are a family of more than 7,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. They are also commonly known as Velvet Ants, that refer to their resemblance to ants. This group of “wasp like ants” usually have dense hair, that can be bright scarlet or orange, black, white, silver or gold. These colours serve as “aposematic signals”.
Aposematic signals are used in avoidance learning, signalling to predators that they are unpalatable prey
Aposematism (Greek, apo = away, sematic = sign) is the use of colouration as a warning, informing potential predators that this creature is poisonous, venomous, or dangerous. Whilst orange or red patterns are quite common warning colours, this is necessarily not always the case, as some insects are known to mimic the warning colours.
The Velvet Ant is a female wingless wasp, that is usually bigger then the typical ant. Different species have varied patterns in red and black in various patterns, with some that are almost all red in colour. Other Velvet Ants species are yellow and black, with others being white, some having metallic sheen. The female of the species have extremely painful stings. The male Velvet Ants are also colourful, have wings and no stingers.
Unlike true ants, Mutillids are solitary insects and are not considered aggressive, stinging only in defence.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Superfamily: Vespoidea
- Family: Mutillidae
- Subfamily:
- Mutillinae
- Sphaeropthalminae
Footnote & References
- Insects of Perth & South West Western Australia, https://www.facebook.com/groups/925620167561301/
- Mutillidae, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/39e1070e-5cdc-4f24-870d-5d1b951cb954
- Velvet Ants (Family Mutillidae), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/48511-Mutillidae
MutillidaeAglaotilla Bothriomutilla rugicollis (Mutillid Wasp) Dasymutillini
WaspsWasps Index Australian Large Wasps Australian Mud Nest Wasps Mud Wasp Velvet Ants Abispa ephippium Acarozumia amaliae Aulacidae Australodynerus Bembix Bembicinae Blue Hairy Flower Wasp Braconidae Chrysididae Cryptocheilus bicolor (Orange Spider Wasp) Delta latreillei (Potter Wasp) Eumeninae Ferreola handschini (Orange-collared Spider Wasp) Flower Wasps Gasteruptiid Wasp Hairy Flower Wasps Isodontia (Grass-carrying Wasp) Lissopimpla excelsa (Orchid Dupe Wasp) Mutillidae Paralastor sp. Pseudabispa bicolor ssp. nigrocinctoides Radumeris radula (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp) Radumeris tasmaniensis (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp) Sceliphron laetum Thynnid Wasps Tiphiidae Yellow and Black Wasp
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