Dasymutilla foxi

Dasymutilla foxi
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Mutillidae
Genus:	Dasymutilla
Species:	D. foxi
Binomial name
Dasymutilla foxi Cockerell, 1894

Dasymutilla foxi is a species of velvet ant found in Mexico and the southwestern United States.[1][2] Dasymutilla foxi is locally common, and "setal coloration is highly variable; each of the body segments varies from whitish to reddish, and most eastern populations (Colorado, Kansas, Texas) have a black setal patch on the mesosoma."[3]

This species was first described by entomologist Theodore D. A. Cockerell and is named for William J. Fox [species].[2] Dasymutilla phoenix and Dasymutilla dugesii have been synonymized with this species.[3] According to C. E. Mickel in 1928, "The females vary in size from 5 to 11 mm...A note on two of the specimens collected by Cockerell states that this species is parasitic in the nests of Diadasia species."[4]

References

1. "Dasymutilla flammifera". iNaturalist. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
2. "Species Dasymutilla foxi". bugguide.net. Retrieved 2024-11-19.
3. Manley, Donald G.; Williams, Kevin A.; Pitts, James P. (2020-05-11). "Keys to Nearctic Velvet Ants of the Genus Dasymutilla Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), with Notes on Taxonomic Changes since Krombein (1979)". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 122 (2): 335. doi:10.4289/0013-8797.122.2.335. ISSN 0013-8797.
4. Mickel, Clarence E. (1928). "Biological and Taxonomic Investigations on the Mutillid Wasps". Bulletin of the United States National Museum (143). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office: 1–351. doi:10.5479/si.03629236.143.1.