Ground-nesting-hosts
Guides
Brachymelecta californica
California Digger-cuckoo Bee
Brachymelecta californica, the California digger-cuckoo bee, is a cleptoparasitic bee species in the family Apidae. As a cuckoo bee, it does not construct its own nests or collect pollen, but instead lays eggs in the nests of host bees, primarily species of Anthophora. The species is native to western North America and has been documented across a broad geographic range including California and adjacent regions.
Dasymutilla scaevola
Dasymutilla scaevola is a velvet ant species native to North America, widely distributed across the eastern half of the continent. Like other mutillids, females are wingless while males possess wings. The species is a parasitoid wasp that develops within the cocoons of other ground-nesting Hymenoptera. Research has demonstrated that females locate host nests primarily through contact chemoreception of chemical cues from host cocoons and nest materials, rather than visual cues.
Myrmosula
Myrmosula is a genus of small parasitic wasps in the family Myrmosidae (sometimes historically placed in Mutillidae). These insects are part of a poorly studied group of velvet ant relatives, with winged males and wingless females. The genus was established by Bradley in 1917 and remains taxonomically challenging due to limited specimen availability and morphological convergence with other myrmosid genera.