non-social wasps

[scolopendra277]

does anyone know how to keep and breed non-social wasps like velvet ants? I think that's easier than social species, right?

 

[XxMochiixX]

I've never had velvet ants but if you wanted to breed them you'd have to also breed their host species, which is sometimes another solitary wasp itself.
For other non social wasps, some are easier but it depends on the species

 

[Ponerinecat]

You can most definitely keep wingless wasps, in general any bin with a sugar source of food keeps them alive. They don't seem to care about the contents of the tank itself much, as long as it isn't too wet(then again there are probably also wingless wasps that like such wet conditions.) Breeding them is another matter as every wingless wasp I know of is a parasite and has winged males. Wingless wasps are incredibly diverse as well, not all of them look like velvet ants. In fact the majority of velvet ants don't look like the Dasymutilla species you see pasted everywhere that mentions velvet ants. They look more like tiny box headed cows, if cows were insects.

Gonatopodinae sp.


Pseudomethoca athamas, one of the more common velvet ant body shapes.


Chyphotes sp. drinking honey


"Wingless" wasp (chyphotidae?) male, very clearly winged.

 

[Arthroverts]

Considering the life-cycle of most species I would say they are absolutely not easier to breed, though they may be easier to keep in the general sense.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[scolopendra277]

thanks! so, I don't think I would be able to breed them but keeping velvet ants I can. how long do they live and can I keep multiple in one terrarium?

 

[Arthroverts]

thanks! so, I don't think I would be able to breed them but keeping velvet ants I can. how long do they live and can I keep multiple in one terrarium?

Lots of good information in these videos.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Aquarimax/search?query=velvet%20ants

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[scolopendra277]

thanks, I'll definitely be checking those out!

 

[ChaosForTheFly]

Aquarimax pets did a livestream with an entomologist who studies velvet ants. He says there is one example in literature of getting a wild caught already fertilized velvet ant to parasitize a wasp, but the offspring didn't breed in captivity so they were unable to propagate them. Link is the video I am referencing.

 

[scolopendra277]

that's really cool! probably really rare too.

 

[Kazeres]

Yesterday I found a rotten tomatoe full of drosophila flyes. A close view, I seen parasitic wasps of drosophila larvae.

They are solitary but with wings.

 

[Ponerinecat]

Yesterday I found a rotten tomatoe full of drosophila flyes. A close view, I seen parasitic wasps of drosophila larvae.

They are solitary but with wings.

That's a good point, wouldn't ichneumons, eucharitids, and other parasites be relatively easy to raise? All you need is the host species and a few mated females and you get a population of parasitic wasps that can be bred every season with new hosts.