''Dasymutilla'' is a wasp genus belonging to the family
Mutillidae. Their larvae are external parasites to various types of ground-nesting
Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, 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 Par ...
. 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.
Selected Species
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''D. alesia''
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''D. archboldi''
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''D. arenivaga''
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''D. asopus''
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''D. aureola''
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''D. bioculata''
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''D. californica''
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''D. calorata''
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''D. chattahoochei''
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''D. chiron''
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''D. chisos''
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''D. coccineohirta''
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''D. creon''
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''D. creusa''
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''D. dilucida''
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''D. eminentia''
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''D. foxi''
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''D. gibbosa''
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''D. gloriosa'' (
thistledown velvet ant)
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''D. gorgon''
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''D. heliophila''
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''D. klugii''
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''D. lepeletierii''
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''D. magnifica''
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''D. meracula''
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''D. monticola''
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''D. mutata''
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''D. nigricauda''
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''D. nigripes''
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''D. nitidula''
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''D. nocturna''
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''D. nogalensis''
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''D. occidentalis'' (
cow killer)
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''D. pyrrhus''
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''D. quadriguttata''
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''D. sackenii''
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''D. scaevola''
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''D. sicheliana''
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''D. thetis''
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''D. vesta''
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''D. vestita''
Defenses
Certain members of this genus are known for their painful and venomous sting. On the
Starr sting pain scale
The Starr sting pain scale was created by the entomologist Christopher Starr as a scale to compare the overall pain of hymenopteran stings on a four-point scale, an expansion of the "pain index" originally created by Justin Schmidt. 1 is the lowe ...
, at least one velvet ant species (''
Dasymutilla klugii
''Dasymutilla'' is a wasp genus belonging to the family Mutillidae. Their larvae are external parasites to various types of ground-nesting Hymenoptera. Members of this genus are highly variable in sting intensity, ranging from a 1 ('' D. th ...
'') outscored 58 species of wasps and bees in the painfulness of its sting, falling short of only the bullet ant (''
Paraponera clavata''), 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 (genus ''
Pepsis'').
Many species within this genus exhibit
Müllerian mimicry. 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 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
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Mutillidae
Hymenoptera genera
Taxa named by William Harris Ashmead
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