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Mmmmmm velvet ants, mmm mmm mmmmmmm velvet ants. They're cool, but I distinctly remember nobody knowing anything much about them. I wonder if I can spend three days sorting them out. Let's hope it doesn't take that long -_-

So uhh I guess we start at the top. Family Mutillidae. I'm just gonna go by what ALA says because it seems decent. There are 9 genera in two subfamilies: Mutillinae: Odontomutilla (1 sp.), Trogaspidia (2 spp.); Sphaeropthalminae: Aglaotilla (14 spp.), Australotilla (5 spp.), Bothriomutilla (1 sp.), Ephutomorpha (155 spp.), Eurymutilla (6 spp.), Odontomyrme (6 spp.), Ponerotilla (4 spp.). Well that's... Mmmm. Okay then. 'Not ideal' is an understatement.

I've seen Ephutomorpha before and it's fairly similar to this so I guess it is at least Sphaeropthalminae. Thorax is a bit of a different shape though so with luck I don't have something within that mess of species.

Alright, well let's see if I can rule out the three mutillines. This is Trogaspidia cooki, at least according to iNat: I see no reason to doubt it really and it seems correct. The other iNat Trogaspidia observations from around the world are all very similar, and given that they have no indication of any strong thoracic spines I am happy to also rule out T. tricarinata. The iNat observations of Odontomutilla are also very similar in form, and seem to differ from Trogaspida mostly in abdominal pattern. So I'm happy ruling Odontomutilla out as well.

Okay, so we have something in Sphaeropthalminae then. Bothriomutilla rugicollis is a very distinctive, common species with large spines on the thorax:

Ponerotilla then - I can find no information with a cursory search except for this paper which mentions that females have (only?) been collected from underground, in the nests of ants. I guess I should probably check them, shouldn't I. Good news! All four are described in this paper, all four are known only from WA, and all four look quite different to this.

Next up is Australotilla. There are some iNat sightings and they seem to have a rather different thorax to mine so I don't think they will be what we are after. But still, I should check. This paper will help quite a lot. It has the original description of the genus, and importantly all of the currently-assigned species are included within it in that paper. The description seems to indicate that the thorax does not contain the large spines that my one has. The generic description states that all species have the "abdomen with 6 bright-colored spots in single longitudinal line, sometimes weak or lacking on 3rd and 4th tergites". The diagram of A. modesta included confirms these details:

and they certainly match the iNat sightings as well. So I am once again happy to rule them out.

Next up, Eurymutilla. Once more there are iNat sightings including two different species, and they look rather different to mine. Still I will look. E. turneri is described in the paper linked above, and the holotype is here: Quite different really. The description of E. unilineata is here; the abdominal pattern is different and it has a brown/orange thorax. The description of E. perelegans is here, currently a synonym of E. argenteolineata. It is rather similar to the previous two; once more it has an orange/red thorax. The original description of E. argenteolineata is here but ugh it's in French. It seems to agree but if anyone wants to translate, go ahead! The description of E. exigua is here. I have only translated part of it but it seems only to be for the male, alas. Either way it seems that most of the Eurymutilla species are very similar to each other, so I will rule for now pending the result that all of the other species are similar too. Ephutomorpha morosa var. albocalcarata, described briefly here, is a synonym of E. cordata. The abdomen has narrow white borders on the first and second segments, so it is out. And finally E. mutilla is described and illustrated here:

So that is Eurymutilla out then.

Odontomyrme next. There are many iNat sightings and they all seem very small. Our paper from before contains the original description of the genus along with a key to all six species. Woohoo! O. gilberti has abdominal tergite 2 rusty red with a preapical black band, and then the remaining segments rusty red. O. difficilis has abominal tergites 1-5 rusty red. O. abjecta has tergite 1 rusty red (at least partially), and then tergites 3 and 4 black with rusty red apical bands. O. tobiasi also has tergite 1 at least partially rusty red, but has tergites 3 and 4 yellowish brown. O. addena has tergite 2 with a "large semicircular, apicomedial rusty red cuticular spot". And finally O. sessilis has tergite 2 with a "less conspicuous, transverse apicomedial rusty red cuticular spot". Here is the type of O. tobiasi for reference:

Good to rule out another genus. Heading into dangerous territory now though....

Alright then, Aglaotilla. Astonishingly, the genus actually has a modern treatment! That's probably because it was only described very recently. Thanks the lord for modern taxonomists. Anyway, it's here and it very clearly states that all the species are brightly metallic and strongly punctured. The type, A. submetallescens, is imaged, and it is indeed similar to the iNat sightings of the genus. So Aglaotilla is out.

And now, alas, we reach our big problem. Ephutomorpha is an incredibly huge mess. Many species actually belong to some of the other genera we have already looked at, and I don't doubt that many also represent undescribed genera. It's a bit like Platybrachys isn't it. So I don't really have much hope for getting a definitive ID, but we might still be able to get somewhere. ALA lists 155 described species, and I am not going through them all. But there are plenty of species IDed here on iNat courtesy of the amazing @kevinwilliams, so we can go through and see if anything is close. Right away there is a match - E. ruficornis. All the markings and morphology match. It is a decent distance from the other iNat sightings but that doesn't necessarily mean anything, considering there are only 4 observations. The original description is... short. It essentially says that it is black, the antennae are red, and the abdomen has white hairs. I guess it matches? I'm hesitant to apply the name given that the only proper reference is iNat itself (don't want to be circular), but I can't see anything that would differentiate it from the other sightings here. E. ruficornis s. l. maybe. Perhaps the experts can chime in and tell me how wrong I am :P

Fast runner. Do velvet ants come in non-fuzzy format?

Edit: wow, I didn't realize this was something unusual! Here's more info, in case that's useful for anyone.

This little gal was in an area of scrubland, on an exotic game hunting ranch that's been left pretty much entirely un-developed. They just have a few buildings, and some dirt roads. If anyone finds themself in the same area, this was on Ox Ranch, on a route heading towards the cave they give people tours of. She was along the back route, the one that doesn't include driving through the creek. I don't guarantee that the little pin in this observation is in the exact right spot.
The area had a number of scraggly, smallish live oak trees, and fairly minimal ground cover. Small bushes with clean or nearly-clean ground between them. There was a thin creek 20-30 feet away, running through a wide creekbed. I looked at the ground a lot in that area, watching for rattlesnakes, and I didn't see any other velvet ants.
She was a fast wasp! She didn't really take any notice of me that I could tell, and kept about her business, running in a messy zigzagging pattern that seems to be common in velvet ants. She paused now and then to check out the occasional smell, but never for long.

I'm probably going back to the ranch in fall. If I see any more of these, I'll try to take better pictures, and maybe a bit of video.

Additional edit: these appear to be the only photos of this species alive. So, that's really cool. I wish I'd followed her around and tried to get more shots, but I had no idea she was anything rare! I was on my way down to a creekbed, and took a couple of quick snaps of a neat bug along the way.

I found two small holes on the hiking trail, noticed something was hiding inside. I poked it with a small straw, a velvet ant came out. It was really fast and I couldn't get a good picture for ID. I didn’t have any container so I used my speedlite soft box , carefully scooped it up with sand. It finally calmed down so I could take few pictures. I put it back to the small hole afterward.