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