Description

Velvet ants are amazing pets! especially if you want a display insect. Velvet ants live happily with other velvet ants of any size and Tenebrionidae’s which are also available. While they are called a ant they are actually a flightless wasp. The females are the only flightless while the males have wings and live much shorter. The females can live up to 2 years but they may live much shorter such as 3 months. They feed on pollen and this can easily be substituted with sugar water with a small amount of honey (honey optional) dissolved into it, then simply add the water mix to a bottle cap and put a small piece of tissue in it to suck up the water. They also need fruit or beetle jelly to feed on. Check out this video by clints reptiles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noy6OKqnpRU on setup of (American species). Note these species are smaller than the ones in the video so check sizing of each species as species in Australia are often smaller, but they can reach larger sizes. IMPORTANT!! These are wasp and they can sting so handle with care as a sting is very painful!!

These inverts feed on beetle jelly sold by outback bugs

These species is a small sized (~2mm) velvet ant and has a metallic bright purple abdomen and is a more active species and great for display enclosures.