Velvet Ants (Mutillidae) - 166 Species, Identification & Facts

Dasymutilla archboldi

In Florida, males of D. vesta have been misidentified as D. archboldi (Williams et al., 2012: Systematic review of the Dasymutilla monticola species-group (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae): using phylogenetics to address species-group placement and sex assoc

Dasymutilla asopus

Identification: thorax as broad as long or slightly broader than long; mandible tridentate (Comment by George Waldren)

Pacific Velvet Ant

Dasymutilla aureola

Identification: Males (winged): Head as wide as mesosoma; scarlet colored vestiture on dorsum of head, thorax, and abdominal tergites 3-6; median pit filled with setae is present on 2nd abdominal sternite (last character shared with some other speci

Dasymutilla bioculata

Identification: Females: No tubercles on posterolateral angles of head. Thorax longer than broad, with a scutellar scale and transverse carina anterior to it. Pygidium longitudinally striate. Color variable. Males: Color variable, dorsum of head and

Dasymutilla campanula

Identification: Thorax orangish, legs black, abdomen black with broad, bell-shaped yellow mark on T2. Posterolateral tubercles on the head present; mesosoma longer than broad and with a scutellar scale.

Dasymutilla connectens

Identification: A a rarer member of the desert Müllerian group colored very similarly to both D. eminentia and D. magna with gray to pale yellow body setae. The thorax is elongate as in D. magna (versus wide in D. eminentia ), but the head is thicker

Dasymutilla gorgon

Identification: One of several large species with this color pattern; the very large head is one character that helps to separate it from D. klugii and D. magnifica .

Klug's Velvet Ant

Dasymutilla klugii

Identification: Easily recognized in Texas among similarly colored species by its large size (never under half inch) and head narrower than the thorax. It is separated from the desert southwest D. magnifica , which doesn't occur in Texas, by the blac

Dasymutilla montivagoides

Identification: "easily distinguished by having the mesosoma as broad as long, the antennal scrobe ecarinate, and the mandible tridentate. The head and mesosoma are clothed with reddish setae. The sterna, genae, and pleurae have predominantly black s

Dasymutilla pseudopappus

Identification: In comparison to Dasymutilla gloriosa , the integument is blacker (not reddish), and the head and thorax have more erect setae. The females of this species were once thought to be mimics of the seeds of the Creosote bush ( Larrea trid

Lomachaeta cirrhomeris

Identification: The female is all red except for a bit of darkening of the pygidium. The male is all black except for the red tegulae and femora. hardly ever collected

Photomorphus banksi

Identification: Bradley (1916) describes the male: Coal-black, with erect white pubescence, mixed with shorter, decumbent, brown pubescence on the mesonotum and second dorsal segment; wings slightly clouded, more so beyond the venation. See comments

Pseudomethoca propinqua

Identification: male: dorsum of thorax black, vertex and apical margins of the abdominal segments golden, wings dark; female similarly colored

Sphaeropthalma noctivaga

Identification: The male "has a smaller ventral mandibular tooth" than related species in the noctivaga-group - Kevin Williams

Sphaeropthalma pinalea

Identification: Male "can be recognized by the stark contrast of the darker back half of abdomen and lighter reddish T2, long marginal cell, and the lack of a tooth on the underside of the mandible. The female isn't published and described yet..." -

Sphaeropthalma pluto

Identification: Male has "entirely black abdomen" and "small ventral mandibular tooth" - Kevin Williams

Timulla contigua

Identification: female: sides of thorax weakly emarginate; front, vertex and dorsum of the thorax with moderate, contiguous punctures; legs entirely black (Mickel 1937) uncommon, and a bit of an enigma. male unknown (G. Waldren, pers. comm. to MAQ, 2

Timulla cyllene

This species was previously only known from Mexico, and was newly recorded in Arizona (Santa Cruz Co.) by Waldren .

Timulla vagans

Identification: Mickel describes subspecies vagans : This is the most widely distributed and abundant species of the genus Timulla in North America north of Mexico. The female has been confused with dubitata Smith in collections. The female may be re