David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital
Video Images
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Hymenoptera 35 – Velvet Ants
VELVET
ANT Nemka viduata
·
This
female Velvet Ant Nemka viduata (in actuality a flightless
wasp) was photographed in Portugal and unlike British mutillids she did not try
to run away when being photographed. Males are fully winged and these insects
are parasitic on other ground-nesting aculeate hymenopterans. According to Paul Brock’s ‘A photographic guide to Insects of Southern Europe & the
Mediterranean’ Pisces Publications 2017, ISBN 978-1-874357-79-7 they
can produce a painful sting and stridulate when handled. The photographer has
some degree of curiosity about the order in which these aspects of behaviour
were ascertained! It is not known if the miniscule ant was in attendance but
the proximity of its antennae to that of the Velvet Ant indicates that there
may have been some pheromonal communication going on. This link: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151014-superpowers-of-the-near-invincible-velvet-ant describes some of the sophisticated
chemical weaponry employed by these insects and suggests that the production of
ketones may be used to deter attacks from ants. So the juxtaposition of this
ant may have been a matter of pure coincidence, it might have been
investigating the much larger Velvet Ant in response to the detection of
chemical signals and if so these could have been released in order to deter or
attract it. Other insects produce secretions in order to win protection from
ants but in this case (and in the light of the context of this article)
deterrence would appear to have been more likely.
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