Talk:Mutillidae

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Arthropods, a collaborative effort to improve and expand Wikipedia's coverage of arthropods. If you would like to participate, visit the project page where you can join the project and/or contribute to discussion.
Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale.
Low This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale.

Article Grading:
The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

Contents

[edit] Stings

I believe you mean the most painful sting, not bite. BTW I've heard that the tarantula hawks such as Pepsis have even more painful stings. See for example http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/sep/papr/thawk.html Tjunier 14:55, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I have removed the statement. — Pekinensis 17:27, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wingless Wasps

How does the velvet ant relate to the Australian blue ant? Living in the south-eastern US, I've seen velvet ants. They make an audible noise when distressed, and can appear red or orange.

[edit] Type of wasp??

the statement "are not actually ants, but a type of wasp" is not really correct, Mutillidae are neither wasps nor ants. Suppafly 04:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Sorry to disagree, but "wasp" in the broadest sense is any member of the order Hymenoptera. Ants are a type of wasp, as are bees and sawflies. Even in the most restrictive sense (as is adopted here in WP), only those three lineages (ants, bees, and sawflies) are ordinarily excluded - everything else in the order is a "wasp". Dyanega 22:02, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] association of sexes

I am an expert in Mutillids, among other things, and have even co-authored papers describing the association of males and females - it is ENTIRELY accurate to state that it is almost impossible to associate the sexes, regardless of whether one is an expert or a non-expert. Accordingly, the recent edit which suggested that only non-experts would be confused was incorrect. After over 200 years of research by experts, some 90% of the world's mutillids still remain known from only one sex or the other. Dyanega 17:37, 23 April 2007 (UTC)