For the identification of insects and other fauna and flora of South Africa.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Velvet Ant (Dolichomutilla sycorax)

Velvet Ant (Dolichomutilla sycorax) family Mutillidae Hymenoptera (Wasps)

When I bought my first little point and shoot camera way back in 2008 in order to take pictures of insects, little did I know that this was going to become the foremost thing of importance in my life. I did not for one minute think that bugs of any kind could be interesting enough to capture my heart. Now, I live and breath BUGS!! If you have to love something, why not insects?? :)

There are a few hundred species of Velvet ants (Mutillidae) in South Africa of which I have sofar only managed to photograph 2.

This is Dolichomutilla sycorax and mostly lays its eggs on and paratizes wasp larvae. It bites its way into a cell and lays an egg on the pupa inside, resealing the nest when leaving.

For pictures of the second species and more information on Velvet Ants, please follow this link.


I could probably have chosen something easier to photograph though and not something that bites, flies, crawls, jumps etc and is so difficult to keep still to get good photographs.

9 comments:

Diane said...

Your photos are always excellent and these are no exception. Interesting post. Diane

Gaelyn said...

You chose just right, looking at the often overlooked. And you've come a long ways from the P&S.

Hope all is well.

Think road trip next year.

Craig Glenn said...

Our velvet ant is not an ant at all but a wingless wasp that packs quite a sting. Some hear call them cow ants. Great photos once again bug lady!

Catatonic said...

My 6 old year son got stung by one this morning... Seemed to be quite painful but the pain subsided quite quickly and he was pain free after about 5 minutes.

Unknown said...

Are they poisonous? My daughter got stung by one and it is swelling up?

Unknown said...

when ever i see this ant, i know luck is on the way 😊😊😊 it's called Senwamoro in Setswana

Natureguy99 said...

I have just taken ñ few pics of the ant on my front porch

Natureguy99 said...
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N said...

As a child I was proper scared of these things on the farm! I was more scared of them than spiders! I believed that they were poisonous and will still not come near them - even if you tell me they are harmless. lol