Velvet Ant
Dasymutilla sicheliana
The true head is at upper left. Seven Springs area, Maricopa Co., Arizona. 19 July 2015.
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There are many fascinating velvet ant species in Arizona's sycamore woodlands and desert areas. The females of this wasp are wingless partly to make it easier for them to enter tunnels in the soil. Their frenetic running is part of their program to hunt ground nesting bees or wasps. Each velvet ant species has a particular host it is looking for. Observing this species I found that the pattern made it difficult to tell whether it was walking forward or backward. When it exits a tunnel in the soil after investigating, it does so by walking in reverse, but the fake head pattern makes it appear to be crawling in a forward direction and then inexplicably reverse direction! Velvet ants are well known for possessing a powerful sting. How severe is the sting of this species?
Mutilidae -- Velvet Ant Family
Other Velvet Ant Species:
