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Mating pair. 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 bright scarlet or orange, but may also be black, white, silver, or gold.
The blue ant (Diamma bicolor), also known as the blue-ant or bluebottle, is a species of flower wasp in the family Thynnidae. [1] It is the sole member of the genus Diamma and of the subfamily Diamminae. Despite its common name and wingless body, it is not an ant but rather a species of large, solitary, parasitic wasp. [2]
In species where both sexes are winged, males are similar in size to the females, but are much more slender. The males of species with wingless females, however, are often much larger than the females and have wings; the adults mate in the air, with the female carried by the male's genitalia.
These wasps demonstrate extreme sexual dimorphism; the females resemble ants and are wingless, while the males are winged and nocturnal. These extreme differences between the sexes have led to instances where the males and females are described as separate species, known as "dual taxonomy", and later work shows the two "species" to be ...
The prey is paralysed with the female's sting, and an egg is laid on it so the wasp larva has a ready supply of food. As some of the ground-dwelling scarab species attacked by tiphiids are pests, some of these wasps are considered beneficial as biological control agents .
Doryctines have been used to control pests in Europe, Australia, and North America. Several doryctine wasps are of economic importance as biocontrol agents in Australia against eucalyptus pests. [4] The species Spathius agrili has been introduced to the United States from China in an effort to control the emerald ash borer. [5]
Polistes humilis is in the genus Polistes, which consists of 150 species that can be found in all regions except the world's coldest climates. Polistes humilis was the only species of the tribe Polistini found in New Zealand after it was accidentally introduced from Australia, [4] prior to the introduction of the Asian paper wasp, Polistes chinensis in 1979. [5]
Gelis agilis is a tiny wingless hyperparasitoid wasp that attacks the parasitoid wasp Cotesia glomerata and other parasitoids, like Dinocampus coccinellae. It reproduces asexually, with adult females feeding on their hosts' hemolymph in order to create eggs. [1] It looks superficially like an ant and also produces ant-like alarm pheromones. [2]