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Velvet Ants
Mutillidae
The Mutillidae are a family of more than 3,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair, which most often is bright scarlet or orange, but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. Black and white specimens are sometimes known as panda ants due to their hair coloration resembling that of the giant panda. Their bright colors serve as aposematic signals....
7 branches of this family, most-observed first
Sphaeropthalminae
subfamilySphaeropthalminae
Mutillinae
subfamilyMutillinae
Myrmillinae
subfamilyMyrmillinae
Dasylabrinae
subfamilyDasylabrinae
Pseudophotopsidinae
subfamilyPseudophotopsidinae
Ticoplinae
subfamilyTicoplinae
Rhopalomutillinae
subfamilyRhopalomutillinae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Mutillidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 48511.