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Blog #4 – Panda Ant

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Look at the picture above. What kind of animal do you think that is? Yeah, it definitely does look like an ant, but it’s actually not. In fact, it’s a wasp in the Mutillidae family. The Mutillidae is a family of more than 3,000 different species of wasps in which the females are the ones that look like ants. They’re trying to trick you with their appearances, but don’t fall for it. Because if you happen to see one of these and decide to stay rather than run away, you could get a viciously painful sting on your hand.

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The Mutillidae with white and black colors on its skin are also known as Panda Ants. It looks like a great big Panda stuck in a tiny body. Please don’t be fooled by the outer appearances of these animals though, they are painful. In fact, these types of wasps of the Mutillidae family are also known under the common name of “cow killer” or “cow ant”. Mostly likely because they can take down animals much larger than themselves with just a few stings here and there. In the animal kingdom, though, it’s a known fact to be fearful of these wasps due to their aposematic signals, which are their bright colors that basically characterize them as being dangerous or poisonous.

Panda ant

Now, let’s talk a bit more about the Panda Ant pictured above. It’s basically a wingless wasp that is closely related to the Red Velvet Ant. Honestly, not much is known about these bizarre little creatures. We do, however, know its size. It can grow up to 8 millimeters in length, and 2-3 millimeters tall. These species also primarily live in central Chile near the coastal areas, so we probably don’t have to worry about encountering any of these anytime soon.

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Another interesting fact to note about these Panda Ants is that they exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism. What does that mean? Well, it’s basically saying that the males and females of the species are extremely different. It’s pretty much impossible to ever get mixed up between a male and a female Panda Ant. The male is so much larger than the female, and he is the one that carries the female aloft while mating. Because they are so different, though, it’s really hard to tell that they are actually part of the same species unless you happen to catch some of the mating.

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A few extra things to note are their daily habits. The Panda Ants primarily eat nectar as their daily source of food, and the males tend to be more nocturnal than the females, who are rather active during the day. A word that would perfectly characterize their behaviors during the day is “stenothermic” or “thermophilic”. They basically mean that the Panda Ants are more active during temperatures that occur after sunset, but it doesn’t mean that they’re scared of light or anything. So don’t think that shining a flashlight on one of these will scare it away if you see it.

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Sources Used:

http://www.thefeaturedcreature.com/2013/09/this-panda-ant-will-bamboozle-you-about-its-true-identity.html

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/the-panda-ant/

 

One Response

  1. Wait, the wasps that look like pandas are female and the red ones are males, right? Besides being a little confused about that, I think this post was really interesting! I don’t know how you find out about all these rare animals, but they are pretty cool.

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