Case of the Panda Ant


A panda ant? I just had to find out more about this insect.

Surprisingly this charismatic "ant" was difficult to find, and involved translating a lot of spanish text. Alas I discovered this "ant" is actually a wingless wasp from Chile. The specimens collected and cataloged in the Virtual Biodiversity Insectarium were hermaphrodites about 8mm in length from a near coastal region in central Chile.



Pretty cute for a wasp.. but its interesting how similar it looks to this Thistledown Velvet Ant, Dasymutilla gloriosa found in Mexico, California, Texas, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.


Freaky.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lizard Lips

Image
This is my little sister Lila Jane and I a few years ago playing put-put.  Shes adorable.  The course has all kinds of castles and pirates, but Lila's favorite are the giant lizards.  
Some adorable photos..




 And now some science.  
Did you know that lizards don't have lips?

 Nope, no lips.  This lucky lizard was getting lots of love from a sweet little mammal, but giving none in return.  Why don't lizards have lips?  Well, they don't really need lips.  But lets start at the beginning.

Lizards are reptiles, and they have been around for approximately 350 million years.  The Mesozoic is known as the Age of Reptiles for good reason.  Dinosaurs dominated the terrestrial environment, but the transition from aquatic amphibious individuals to fully terrestrial reptiles required many physiological changes in the preceding era, the Paleozoic.  If you want to be on land, but will dry out, it would be most advantageous to have skin that is more thick and keratinized scales t…
Read more

New Post Coming Soon!

Image
Get ready to learn some basic taxonomy, and characteristics of everyones favorite furry friends.... spiders!!

Just kidding, I know they're not a favorite. But they are very interesting. 

We'll get into some fun tidbits on what makes a spider a spider, and how and why they dance!  Till the post is ready enjoy this spider.. with a "hat".


Read more