DISQUS

bugshutterbug.com: ID Help! Nicaraguan Hymenoptera

  • Boris Büche · 11 months ago
    Hi Kolby,
    great pics! I noticed them via your post to bugguide (which is for NORTH-American bugs only, b.t.w.).
    Can´t help you much - my speciality is beetles / true bugs - just tell you here that your wasp 01 is a fly (Conopidae).

    cheers, Boris
  • Boris Büche · 11 months ago
    . . . and bee 02 is a velvet ant (Mutillidae).
  • Kolby · 11 months ago
    Hi Boris! Thanks for the note. Isn't bugguide a great resource for entomology lovers?

    My next upload will be the beetles I photographed in Nicaragua. Maybe you can help? I'll send you an e-mail when they're posted.

    I wish I had better pics of that velvet ant. I couldn't get a good shot of the polka-dotted wasp before it scurried into the brush.
  • Gordon Snelling · 11 months ago
    Ant 5 is an Ectatomma species, perhaps tuberculatum. 6 cant etll based on head shot unless it is the same ant.
  • John Ascher · 11 months ago
    Bee01 is Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) [sensu lato]
  • George Waldren · 10 months ago
    The velvet ant is in the genus Dasymutilla.

    It may possibly be D. pulchra, but I would leave it at genus.
  • Kolby · 10 months ago
    Hi George. Thanks for your help. After comparing online photos with the other photos of this specimen that I took, I'm confident you're right about Dasymutilla pulchra. Thanks!
  • Alex · 10 months ago
    Hey Kolby. Nice pics. As far as I can tell, your ants are:

    1: Camponotus rectangularis
    2: Acromyrmex octospinosus
    3: Pachycondyla villosa
    4: Camponotus sp. (this complex of spp. is a taxonomic mess)
    5&6: Ectatomma ruidum

    Hope this helps,

    Alex
  • Kolby · 10 months ago
    Thanks, Alex! It does!