Velvet Ant (Dolichomutilla sycorax)

Velvet Ant (Dolichomutilla sycorax) family Mutillidae Hymenoptera (Wasps)

When I bought my first little point and shoot camera way back in 2008 in order to take pictures of insects, little did I know that this was going to become the foremost thing of importance in my life. I did not for one minute think that bugs of any kind could be interesting enough to capture my heart. Now, I live and breath BUGS!! If you have to love something, why not insects?? :)

There are a few hundred species of Velvet ants (Mutillidae) in South Africa of which I have sofar only managed to photograph 2.

This is Dolichomutilla sycorax and mostly lays its eggs on and paratizes wasp larvae. It bites its way into a cell and lays an egg on the pupa inside, resealing the nest when leaving.

For pictures of the second species and more information on Velvet Ants, please follow this link.

I could probably have chosen something easier to photograph though and not something that bites, flies, crawls, jumps etc and is so difficult to keep still to get good photographs.