''Dasymutilla'' is a wasp genus belonging to the family

Mutillidae Velvet ants (Mutillidae) are a family of more than 7,000 species of wasps whose wingless females resemble large, hairy ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their resemblance to an ant, and their dense pile of hair, which most often is br ...

. Their larvae are external parasites to various types of ground-nesting

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

. Most of the velvet ants in North Americathe wingless females of which are conspicuous as colorful, fast, and "fuzzy" bugsare in the genus ''Dasymutilla''.

Selected species

* ''D. albiceris'' * ''D. alesia'' * ''D. arachnoides'' * ''D. archboldi'' * ''D. arenivaga'' * ''D. asopus'' * ''D. aureola'' * ''D. bioculata'' * ''D. californica'' * ''D. calorata'' * ''D. chattahoochei'' * ''D. chiron'' * ''D. chisos'' * ''D. coccineohirta'' * ''D. creon'' * ''D. creusa'' * ''D. dilucida'' * ''D. eminentia'' * ''D. fasciventroides'' * ''D. flammifera'' * ''D. foxi'' * ''D. gibbosa'' * ''D. gloriosa'' (thistledown velvet ant) * ''D. gorgon'' * ''D. heliophila'' * ''D. klugii'' * ''D. leda'' * ''D. lepeletierii'' * ''D. magnifica'' * ''D. meracula'' * ''D. monticola'' * ''D. montivagoides'' * ''D. mutata'' * ''D. munifica'' * ''D. nigricauda'' * ''D. nigripes'' * ''D. nitidula'' * ''D. nocturna'' * ''D. nogalensis'' * ''D. occidentalis'' (cow killer) * ''D. pseudopappus'' * ''D. pyrrhus'' * ''D. quadriguttata'' * ''D. sackenii'' * ''D. santanas'' * ''D. scaevola'' * ''D. scitula'' * ''D. sicheliana'' * ''D. stevensii'' * ''D. thetis'' * ''D. vesta'' * ''D. vestita'' Dasymutilla specimen LaBrea

Defenses

Certain members of this genus are known for their painful and venomous sting. Members of this genus are highly variable in sting intensity, ranging from a 1 ('' D. thetis'') to a 3 ('' D. klugii'') in the

Schmidt sting pain index The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, who was an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona. Schmidt's or ...

. On the

Starr sting pain scale The Starr sting pain scale was created by the entomology, entomologist Christopher Starr as a scale to compare the overall pain and nociception, pain of hymenopteran stings on a four-point scale, an expansion of the Schmidt sting pain index, "pain ...

, at least one velvet ant species ('' Dasymutilla klugii'') outscored 58 species of wasps and bees in the painfulness of its sting, falling short of only the bullet ant (''

Paraponera clavata ''Paraponera clavata'', commonly known as the bullet ant, is a species of ant known for its extremely painful Insect bites and stings, sting. It inhabits humid lowland rainforests in Central America, Central and South America. Etymology The Spe ...

''), the warrior wasp (''

Synoeca septentrionalis ''Synoeca septentrionalis'' is one of five species of wasps in the genus '' Synoeca''. It is a swarm-founding wasp that is also eusocial, exhibiting complicated nest structure and defense mechanisms and a colony cycle including a pre-emergence ph ...

''), and the

tarantula hawk A tarantula hawk is a spider wasp (Pompilidae) that preys on tarantulas. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera '' Pepsis'' and '' Hemipepsis.'' They are some of the largest parasitoid wasps, using their sting to paralyze ...

(genus ''

Pepsis ''Pepsis'' (from Ancient Greek πέψι lit. ''pepsis'' meaning 'digestion, cooking') is a genus of spider wasps belonging to the family Spider wasp, Pompilidae. Species within this genus are also called tarantula hawks, as they usually hunt t ...

''). Many species within this genus exhibit

Müllerian mimicry Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimicry, mimic each other's honest signal, honest aposematism, warning signals, to their mutuali ...

. There is an eastern mimicry ring, which includes ''D. occidentalis'' and ''D. vesta'', and there is the western mimicry ring, which includes many other species. The effect is to warn off predators by shared aposematic coloration without requiring inexperienced predators to taste and be stung by members of each species separately. Aside from their aposematic coloration, they can produce a loud squeaking noise which also warns potential predators. Their

exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton (e.g. human skeleton, that ...

is remarkably strong; experiments concluded that 11 times more force was needed to crush the exoskeleton of a female velvet ant than that of a honey bee.

References

* * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5227020 Mutillidae Hymenoptera genera Taxa named by William Harris Ashmead