[Download] "Nectaring by Nocturnal Velvet Ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) (Notes) (Report)" by Joseph S. Williams, Kevin A. Tanner, David A. Pitts, James P. Wilson * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Nectaring by Nocturnal Velvet Ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) (Notes) (Report)
- Author : Joseph S. Williams, Kevin A. Tanner, David A. Pitts, James P. Wilson
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Life Sciences,Books,Science & Nature,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 64 KB
Description
Velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) are major components of the Nearctic fauna. Despite their abundance, however, little is known of their natural history. While diurnal velvet ants have conspicuous aposematic color patterns, such as those in the genus Dasymutilla, nocturnal species are small and inconspicuous. Male nocturnal velvet ants are winged, and commonly are collected passively in light traps. Females, which lack wings and are much less vagile, are collected most commonly by visually searching potential habitat with a flashlight or by using pitfall traps. It is common to collect 500 individual males in a single night at one light, although 10 females may be found by searching. While these methods are sufficient means of collecting velvet ants, they do not facilitate observations of their behaviors. Passive methods of collection, such as light and pitfall traps, preclude behavioral observations, and the light from a flashlight often disrupts foraging by females. Field observations of velvet ants are rare, especially for nocturnal forms. Previous observations on the biology of nocturnal velvet ants are limited to three Nearctic species, Sphaeropthalma unicolor, S. orestes,and S. blakeii (Mickel, 1938; Ferguson, 1962), and one African species, Pseudophotopsis continua (Mellor, 1927). None of these observations record any interactions of plants and velvet ants. Observations of feeding behavior in Nearctic forms include drinking of liquid sugars provided by researchers in a laboratory setting, and drinking from wounds in larvae of hosts caused during parasitism (Ferguson, 1962). Observers of the African species of Pseudophotopsis noted that female velvet ants wound adults of their host, a species of Bembix (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), and drink liquid from the wounds (Mellor, 1927). Nearctic velvet ants may feed similarly on resting adults of their hosts, but no observation has been made (Ferguson, 1962). Here we present the first observations in the field of feeding behaviors by adult, nocturnal velvet ants.