Editing Velvet ant (section)

== Life cycle ==
[[File:Nemka viduata viduata - 2012-10-17.webm|left|thumb|thumbtime=1:47|A female of ''Nemka viduata viduata'' (Pallas, 1773) looks for a nest of ''Bembix oculata'' to deposit her eggs.]]
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 are known to parasitize other types of hosts;<ref>{{cite journal |first=Denis J. |last=Brothers |title=Phylogeny and classification of the aculeate Hymenoptera, with special reference to Mutillidae |journal=University of Kansas Science Bulletin |volume=50 |issue=11 |pages=483–648 |date=1975 |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_bo/210/ }}</ref> exceptions include the European velvet ant, ''[[Mutilla europaea]]'', one of the only species that attacks social bees (e.g., ''[[Bombus]]''), and the genus ''[[Pappognatha]]'', whose hosts are tree-dwelling [[orchid bee]]s. The mutillid larvae then develop as [[Parasitoid|idiobiont ectoparasitoids]], eventually killing their immobile larval/pupal hosts within a week or two. Velvet ants exhibit [[haplodiploid]] sex determination, as do other members of the superfamily [[Vespoidea]].
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