Leaf Cutter Ants...

[Black Widow88]

The species is undoubtedly Dasymutilla occidentalis.

The "hissing" is really called stridulation, which takes place on the abdomen. Velvet ants have a stridulatory file on their third abdominal tergite. The scraper is on the underside of the second tergite. So when the scraper is rubbed against the file, it creates the distinctive sound. The sound is associated with mating and defense, but its purpose is not 100% known (it may be associated with other things as well, mutillid biology still needs a lot of work).

I never knew that! Thanks alot for the info. Do other species have this too?

Black Widow88

 

[sintakz]

I fear "Miss Velvet" will die soon. I thought she was a leaf cutter so I didn't feed her. It is the second day that she has a dish with honey and a dish with diluted maple syrup but she still refuses to eat. To raise the humidity I gently misted her container, she didn't like that much..... I gave her a makeshift hiding place which is just the top of a kool-aid container and is held up by a cut wooden skewer.... she likes it at least.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Give it time, she maybe eating at night as well. Also cut some fruit in half. And see if she is interested in that.

 

[Waspman]

I never knew that! Thanks alot for the info. Do other species have this too?

All velvet ants have stridulatory organs, and a few related wasps have it as well.

Sintakz, she will most likely be fine. Mutillid females are very hardy, she probably feeds/drinks when you aren't looking. Try some honey if your current food isn't working. Males on the other hand are not easy to keep for long in captivity.

 

[Tleilaxu]

All velvet ants have stridulatory organs, and a few related wasps have it as well.

Sintakz, she will most likely be fine. Mutillid females are very hardy, she probably feeds/drinks when you aren't looking. Try some honey if your current food isn't working. Males on the other hand are not easy to keep for long in captivity.

Whoa whats with the males? I would assume they would be cared for like a polistine wasp(minus the social aspect of coarse)

 

[anter]

wait.. bumble bees have nests?? i hope you dont meen like hives.. but chambers almost like cicada killers or horntails?

Yesssss, a bumle bee queen dig into the ground to create chambers, where she gathers dry grass and leave to make it comfty. She creates cells to lay her eggs in, then there ate more bumble bees, and soon, you have an ant farmlike colony of bumble bees. They dont dig large networks of tunnels though, only the roons that they need.:razz:

 

[Black Widow88]

I wonder what you were thinking when you asked that question. Where did you think they "grew up" in?

Black Widow88