| Mutilla europaea | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Male of Mutilla europaea | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Mutillidae |
| Genus: | Mutilla |
| Species: | M. europaea |
| Binomial name | |
| Mutilla europaea | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
| |
Mutilla europaea, the large velvet ant, is a species of parasitoid wasps belonging to the family Mutillidae. It is a parasitoid on various species of bumblebees and is found in Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
The males of M. europaea are dark red on the apex of mandible and the thorax. The first and second tergaon the abdomen have bands of long silver setae, that on the second tergum may either be interrupted or wavy. The sides of the second tergum are clothed in long silver setae. The tip of the abdomen and the rest of the body are covered with long black, straight setae. The legs are largely covered in black setae, with a scattering of silver setae. Some variation occurs, and in some specimens, silver dominate setae dominate the hind legs, some males are completely black. In females, the mesonotum is red, and sometimes extends to parts of the pronotum. The first tergum has a band of long, silver setae, the remaining terga are spotted with silver setae along their flanks; they can be close together. The legs have some short, adjecting black and silver setae. [1] The presence of the setae, or bristles, gives rise to the name "velvet ant". [2]
Mutilla europaea is a widespread species found in most of Europe and reaches as far as China in the east. [3] It also occurs in Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. [1] In Great Britain, it is locally distributed, mainly in the south and east, but has recently been recorded as far north as Aberdeenshire. [4]
Mutilla europaea occurs in heaths, moors, chalk grassland, and woodland. In England, it appears to have its closest association with lowland heaths, and the females are most often recorded running across sandy paths. [2]
Like the other wasps in the family Mutillidae, M. europaea wasps are parasitoids of the resting stages of other insects. Various bumblebees in the genus Bombus are the main hosts for this species, although it has also been infrequently reported in the hives of the honey bee (Apis mellifera). Once she enters the host nest, the female lays an egg into a cocoon, which contains either the prepupae or young pupae of the bee. The wasp larva consumes the pupae, before spinning a cocoon within the host's cocoon. The size of the wasp that emerges from its cocoon is partly dependent on the size of the host, with wasps hosted by honeybees smaller than those using bumblebees as hosts. When it emerges, the adult wasp feeds on the honey stores of the host bees. The males die soon after emergence in the autumn, but the females hibernate over the winter, sometimes using the host nest for this. They also hibernate at the roots of low vegetation. [2]
The winged males of M. europaea are occasionally recorded feeding on nectar, the flowers from which they have been recorded feeding include wild parsnip. Females have been recorded visiting flowers, but this is very unusual. [2]
Mutilla europaea wasps are also cleptoparasites, and they have been recorded sneaking into the nests of the paper wasp Polistes biglumis to rob them of their food stores. They are thought to be able to do this due to an ability to disguise their own scent, which means that the Polistes wasps cannot detect them. [5] When threatened, these wasps can stridulate by rubbing a raised structure, called the plectrum, which is found on the underside of the second tergum, over rows of dense narrow ridges at the base of adjoining segment. [2] These wasps are also known to be very strong and armoured with a thick skin, and in North America, related species have been reported to be able to force their escape from the mouths of predators such as lizards and frogs. They have a painful sting, too, and this has given rise to the colloquial name "cow killer", which is completely inappropriate, as although they have a painful sting, their venom is much less toxic than the venom of a honeybee. They are, however, not aggressive and only sting people if handled. [5]
A bumblebee is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have also been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania. Female bumblebees can sting repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals.
The 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. Their bright colors serve as aposematic signals. They are known for their extremely painful stings,, and has resulted in the common name "cow killer" or "cow ant" being applied to the species Dasymutilla occidentalis. However, mutillids are not aggressive and sting only in defense. In addition, the actual toxicity of their venom is much lower than that of honey bees or harvester ants. Unlike true ants, they are solitary, and lack complex social systems.
Kleptoparasitism is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct feeding, such as when food is scarce or when victims are abundant. Many kleptoparasites are arthropods, especially bees and wasps, but including some true flies, dung beetles, bugs, and spiders. Cuckoo bees are specialized kleptoparasites which lay their eggs either on the pollen masses made by other bees, or on the insect hosts of parasitoid wasps. They are an instance of Emery's rule, which states that insect social parasites tend to be closely related to their hosts. The behavior occurs, too, in vertebrates including birds such as skuas, which persistently chase other seabirds until they disgorge their food, and carnivorous mammals such as spotted hyenas and lions. Other species opportunistically indulge in kleptoparasitism.
Apocrita is a suborder of insects in the order Hymenoptera. It includes wasps, bees, and ants, and consists of many families. It contains the most advanced hymenopterans and is distinguished from Symphyta by the narrow "waist" (petiole) formed between the first two segments of the actual abdomen; the first abdominal segment is fused to the thorax, and is called the propodeum. Therefore, it is general practice, when discussing the body of an apocritan in a technical sense, to refer to the mesosoma and metasoma rather than the "thorax" and "abdomen", respectively. The evolution of a constricted waist was an important adaption for the parasitoid lifestyle of the ancestral apocritan, allowing more maneuverability of the female's ovipositor. The ovipositor either extends freely or is retracted, and may be developed into a stinger for both defense and paralyzing prey. Larvae are legless and blind, and either feed inside a host or in a nest cell provisioned by their mothers.
The superfamily Ichneumonoidea contains one extinct and three extant families, including the two largest families within Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae and Braconidae. The group is thought to contain as many as 100,000 species, many of which have not yet been described. Like other parasitoid wasps, they were long placed in the "Parasitica", variously considered as an infraorder or an unranked clade, now known to be paraphyletic.
Vespoidea is a superfamily of wasps in the order Hymenoptera. Vespoidea includes wasps with a large variety of lifestyles including eusocial, social, and solitary habits, predators, scavengers, parasitoids, and some herbivores.
The Conopidae, also known as the thick-headed flies, are a family of flies within the Brachycera suborder of Diptera, and the sole member of the superfamily Conopoidea. Flies of the family Conopidae are distributed worldwide in all the biogeographic realms except for the poles and many of the Pacific islands. About 800 species in 47 genera are described worldwide, about 70 of which are found in North America. The majority of conopids are black and yellow, or black and white, and often strikingly resemble wasps, bees, or flies of the family Syrphidae, themselves notable bee mimics. A conopid is most frequently found at flowers, feeding on nectar with its proboscis, which is often long.
Oophagy sometimes ovophagy, literally "egg eating", is the practice of embryos feeding on eggs produced by the ovary while still inside the mother's uterus. The word oophagy is formed from the classical Greek ᾠόν and classical Greek φᾱγεῖν. In contrast, adelphophagy is the cannibalism of a multi-celled embryo.
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.
Bombus pensylvanicus, the American bumblebee, is a threatened species of bumblebee native to North America. It occurs in eastern Canada, throughout much of the Eastern United States, and much of Mexico.
In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus classified the arthropods, including insects, arachnids and crustaceans, among his class "Insecta". Insects with membranous wings, including bees, wasps and ants were brought together under the name Hymenoptera.
Bombus fervidus, the golden northern bumble bee or yellow bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee native to North America. It has a yellow-colored abdomen and thorax. Its range includes the North American continent, excluding much of the southern United States, Alaska, and the northern parts of Canada. It is common in cities and farmland, with populations concentrated in the Northeastern part of the United States. It is similar in color and range to its sibling species, Bombus californicus, though sometimes also confused with the American bumblebee or black and gold bumblebee. It has complex behavioral traits, which includes a coordinated nest defense to ward off predators. B. fervidus is an important pollinator, so recent population decline is a particular concern.
Polistes metricus is a wasp native to North America. In the United States, it ranges throughout the southern Midwest, the South, and as far northeast as New York, but has recently been spotted in southwest Ontario. A single female specimen has also been reported from Dryden, Maine. Polistes metricus is dark colored, with yellow tarsi and black tibia. Nests of Polistes metricus can be found attached to the sides of buildings, trees, and shrubbery.
Dasymutilla occidentalis is a species of parasitoid wasp native to the eastern United States. It is commonly mistaken for a member of the true ant family, as the female is wingless. The species ranges from Connecticut to Kansas in the north and Florida to Texas in the south.
Megachile campanulae, known as the bellflower resin bee, is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae. Described in 1903, these solitary bees are native to eastern North America. Studies in 2013 placed them among the first insect species to use synthetic materials for making nests. They are considered mason bees, which is a common descriptor of bees in several families, including Megachilidae. Within the genus Megachile, frequently also referred to as leafcutter bees, M. campanulae is a member of the subgenus Chelostomoides, which do not construct nests from cut leaves, but rather from plant resins and other materials. Females lay eggs in nests constructed with individual cell compartments for each egg. Once hatched, the eggs progress through larval stages and subsequently will overwinter as pupae. The bees are susceptible to parasitism from several other bee species, which act as brood parasites. They are medium-sized bees and the female adults are typically larger than the males. They are important pollinators of numerous native plant species throughout their range.
Ptilothrix is a genus within the tribe Emphorini of the family Apidae. Bees of this genus can range from 7 to 15 mm. Ptilothrix species are solitary, ground-nesting bees. These bees have especially prominent hairs in the scopae of their hind legs, to help gather pollen to provision their nests. Ptilothrix species specialize on certain families of plants for their pollen, including the families Malvaceae, Convolvulaceae, Onagraceae, Cactaceae, Pontederiaceae, and Asteraceae. The genus is found in the New World, with species ranging across the Americas.
Bombus ignitus is a species of bumblebee in the family Apidae. It is mainly distributed in Eastern Asia, commonly found in China, Japan and Korea. It is used in China and Japan commercially as a pollinator. B. ignitus is a eusocial insect with a queen that is monandrous: mating with only one male in the late summer before hibernating until the following spring. It builds its nest out of a mass of pollen and lays its eggs after completion. Due to numerous conflicts between queens and fertile workers, some surviving queens are badly injured, described by some as living corpses.
Nest usurpation is when the queen of one species of eusocial insects takes over the colony of another species.
Chrysis viridula is a Western Palearctic species of cuckoo wasp, first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. Chrysis viridula is included in the genus Chrysis, and the family Chrysididae. It is a parasitoid of a number of species of eumenid wasp, mainly those in the genus Odynerus.
Euspinolia militaris is a species of wasp in the family Mutillidae. Though it is a wingless wasp, it has sometimes been referred to by the name panda ant.
