Mutillidae durable, the exoskeleton is also round, making it more difficult for predators to pierce it with attempted stings or bites. During all the trials that led to the fracture of a velvet ant’s exoskeleton, a total of 4 times, resulted in the death of that velvet ant within 24 hours. Thus aside from protection from predators, the exoskeleton provides a function maintaining moisture control. Male mutillids fly in search of females; after mating, the female enters a host insect nest, typically a ground-nesting bee or wasp burrow, and deposits one egg near each larva or pupa. Only a few species
Meat ant The meat ant was first described in 1858 by British entomologist Frederick Smith in his "Catalogue of Hymenopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum part VI", under the binomial name "Formica purpurea" from a holotype worker ant he collected in Melbourne, Victoria. The type material is currently housed in the Natural History Museum, London. In 1862, Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr erected the genus "Iridomyrmex", and reclassified the meat ant as a member of "Iridomyrmex" rather than the genus "Formica". The ant was named "Iridomyrmex purpurea" in 1862. Mayr renamed the ant as "Iridomyrmex purpureus" one year after. "I.