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
Red imported fire ant Walter Kempf's 1972 catalogue of Neotropical ants. In 1972, American entomologist William Buren described what he thought was a new species, naming it "Solenopsis invicta". Buren collected a holotype worker from Cuiabá in Mato Grosso, Brazil, and provided the first official description of the ant in a journal article published by the Georgia Entomological Society. He accidentally misspelled "invicta" as "invica" above the description pages of the species, although it was clear that "invicta" was the intended spelling because of the constant use of the name in the article. The type material is currently housed in the National Museum of