Velvet ants have a series of anti-predator warning signals, including bright colours, a defensive chemical odour and a loud squeak. To avoid becoming another animal's dinner, velvet ants have evolved a formidable collection of defence mechanisms. Their hosts can be spread some distances apart, and as female velvet ants usually lay only one egg per pupa, they can spend a lot of time out in the open on a quest for nests or other hosts. The velvet ant larva then hatches and proceeds to eat the host pupa, before it itself pupates and emerges from the nest as an adult velvet ant. Velvet ants have a parasitoid lifestyle, laying their eggs on the defenceless pupae of other insects such as solitary ground-nesting wasps, although there is a diversity of hosts across the whole family. When the female is ready to lay her eggs, instead of digging or building a nest, she infiltrates those of other species. Once they find each other and mate, the wasps go their separate ways. Males have wings and search for the wingless females on the ground. This group is more commonly known as velvet ants, a name that comes from the females' resemblance to large, hairy ants. There are about 8,000 species in the wasp family Mutillidae. One big challenge of this nomadic lifestyle is the constant risk of being ambushed by would-be predators.įortunately for the wasps, they have evolved an extensive arsenal of defences that mean they can thwart most attacks. Special NotesĬalifornia has about 100 species of velvet ants, most of which are nocturnal and live in the desert.Female velvet ants spend almost their entire lives alone, searching for places to lay their eggs. Usually they do not reach pest status, although they may occasionally invade residences. ConservationĬowkillers are not on the IUCN Red List or any lists maintained by US or state agencies. It prevents water loss and also supplies protection form predators, especially from stings of host wasps in burrows that a nesting female is invading. The exoskeleton of these wasps is like an armor plate. The curved needle-like stinger concealed at the tip of the abdomen is nearly as long as their abdomen and because of its length and maneuverability it can be directed at quite an angle from the abdomen. ![]() Adaptationįemale cowkillers have a very efficient and powerful stinging apparatus. This genus, unlike many other velvet ants that are nocturnal, is active from sunrise to sunset. Those seen flying low over the ground are all males. Velvet ants seen walking on sand are all females. When the egg hatches, the larvae feed on either the mature host larva or the pupa of the host. ![]() The female velvet ant enters the host’s nest, puncture’s the host’s cocoon, and lays one egg. ![]() After mating, females seek nesting chambers of bees and other wasps. Males fly low over the ground searching for females that they find using sight and smell to detect the pheromones that females secrete. ![]() DietĪdult cowkiller ants primarily feed on nectar but they will also eat larvae and adult insects, such as flies, beetles, bees, and other wasps. The largest velvet ant species, cowkillers are 15-25 mm (0.6-1 in) long. The thorax and abdomen of these wasps are red above and covered with short red hairs. Males have transparent black wings and females are wingless. They have a hard exoskeleton that is shed periodically. There is a slight constriction between the two. The body of cowkiller ants consists of two parts, a thorax and abdomen. These velvet ants live in meadows, clover fields, at forest edges, and deserts. Western US: to Missouri, Texas, and Arizona Habitat Geographic DistributionĮastern US: New York to Florida. They are no longer on display at the Aquarium. CLIMATE CHANGE: Not Applicable At the Aquarium
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