Dasymutilla ferruginea (Smith)

MANLEY, DONALD G. & PITTS, JAMES P., 2007, Tropical and Subtropical Velvet Ants of the Genus Dasymutilla Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) with Descriptions of 45 New Species, Zootaxa 1487 (1), pp. 1-128 : 51

Dasymutilla ferruginea (Smith)

Mutilla ferruginea Smith, 1879 . Descr. New Species Hym. Br. Mus.:226. Holotype female, Mexico (No. 15-806) [BMNH] (examined).

Dasymutilla chrysocoma Mickel, 1928 . U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 143:266. Holotype female, Kits Peak, Rincon, Baboquivari Mountains, Arizona, August 1– 4, 1916 [AMNH] (examined). Synonymy: Mickel (1965:3).

Diagnosis of Female (Plate C4L). This species is distinguished by having the apices of the middle and hind femora squarely truncate, and with the surface of the outer lobe sulcate. This species can be separated from other species with this character by having the posterolateral angle of the head carinate, by having the head produced behind the compound eye, with the distance behind the eye being at least equal to the diameter of the eye, by having the head clothed with conspicuous golden setae, lack of a scutellar scale on the mesonotum, lack of maculae on tergum II, by having the integument ferruginous, and by the pygidium being granulate.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. USA (Arizona, Texas); Mexico (Chihuahua, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Sinaloa).

Remarks. This species is known only from the female. It keys easily based on the structure of the middle and hind femora. It is distinguished from D. formosa by having the head produced behind the eyes. We have examined approximately 50 specimens.