 sound when handled.
Female (left) and Winged Male Velvet Ants.
Mature velvet ants feed on nectar. Although most species are strictly nocturnal, females some species are sometimes active up to two hours before sunset. It is thought they may not avoid light but rather are active during temperatures which usually occur only after sunset but on cool overcast days could occur earlier.
The male locates a female on the wing and mates. The female then enters an insect nest, typically a ground-nesting bee or wasp nest, and deposits eggs near the larvae or pupae. Her young develops as an ectoparasitoid, eventually killing and eating its immobile host. A few European species have been known to invade and raid bee or wasp nests.
Velvet ants occur worldwide, with some 5000 species, mainly in the tropics. They are especially common in desert and sandy areas, with most of the over 400 North American species found in the Southwestern United States and adjacent parts of Mexico, with others found in generally sandy regions throughout the United States and Canada; the same habitat where their hosts are most diverse.
Spider Wasps. These are one of the better know groups of large Hymenoptera. Most of the Spider Warps are orange and black, black and grey/white markings or just black, i.e., the very strong warning colors. They usually have tinted wings, smooth and shiny body. Their hind-legs are long and always have two prominent spurs. They tend to coil their antennae. Spider wasps are best distinguished from other similar wasps in having (in most species) a transverse groove dividing the mesopleuron (the mesepisternal sclerite, a region on the side of middle segment of the thorax above the point where the legs join) into halves.
Spider Wasp with Coiled Antennae and Mesoplural Transverse Groove Dividing Segment above Attachment of Second Pair of Legs
In South America spider wasp species may be referred to colloquially as marabunta or marimbondo, though these names can be generally applied to any very large stinging wasps). The family