Dead mystery ant ID

[Salguerovsky]

Hey everyone, this is my first post out here I'll stick to the norms the best I can:
Size: 6mm curled up
When: September 9, 2022. Found her dead at 11am
Where: Guadalajara, México. It is a big city but I live in the outskirts. I's call it a forest. This particular specimen was indoors but close to the backyard exit.
Appearance: <Please try to describe the appearance in case your pictures cannot properly pick up those details> it is dark red, it has long spikes that branch out into other spikes and darken at the tips. It has a huge head with no apparent mandibles, two big black eyes on opposite sides of the head and 10-20 little blonde hairs sticking out between the eyes (looking dashing little one)
Behaviour: I'm afraid I didn't meet her alive I'm not quite sure it is an ant but I figured you'd know more than I do. I moved into this house recently and a colony of very small ants (close to 1mm in length) moved their nest into my couch, whilst investigating this new colony I noticed the mystery specimen, I might've stepped on it a bit by accident At first I thought it was a ball of ants as it had a couple of them on top, but upon observation it was this individual. I couldn't find or identify their legs. The little spikes broke as I moved it from the couch to a table
Picture(s):
I'll leave 3 images as imgur links and I'll try the img tag, but I'll also leave a drive link with more and higher resolution pictures
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I6mWjhHBuzaFIQ5jaJyFSt6U6FQb0Zg0

https://imgur.com/TbwfJrK

https://imgur.com/jWdeURB

https://imgur.com/CfyzumH

Additionally: As I mentioned, I'm not 100% sure this is an ant, but I found them in the vicinity of the ant's nest. This house has A LOT of insects coming in, specially spiders. I'm fairly new to the region. If you feel this is not an ant, please let me know your reasoning as I would really like to know what species this little guy or gal is. Also if you'd like to request a different picture and/or test, do let me know, I'll keep the carcass as best as I can

[antperson24]

Hey everyone, this is my first post out here I'll stick to the norms the best I can:
Size: 6mm curled up
When: September 9, 2022. Found her dead at 11am
Where: Guadalajara, México. It is a big city but I live in the outskirts. I's call it a forest. This particular specimen was indoors but close to the backyard exit.
Appearance: <Please try to describe the appearance in case your pictures cannot properly pick up those details> it is dark red, it has long spikes that branch out into other spikes and darken at the tips. It has a huge head with no apparent mandibles, two big black eyes on opposite sides of the head and 10-20 little blonde hairs sticking out between the eyes (looking dashing little one)
Behaviour: I'm afraid I didn't meet her alive I'm not quite sure it is an ant but I figured you'd know more than I do. I moved into this house recently and a colony of very small ants (close to 1mm in length) moved their nest into my couch, whilst investigating this new colony I noticed the mystery specimen, I might've stepped on it a bit by accident At first I thought it was a ball of ants as it had a couple of them on top, but upon observation it was this individual. I couldn't find or identify their legs. The little spikes broke as I moved it from the couch to a table
Picture(s):
I'll leave 3 images as imgur links and I'll try the img tag, but I'll also leave a drive link with more and higher resolution pictures
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I6mWjhHBuzaFIQ5jaJyFSt6U6FQb0Zg0

https://imgur.com/TbwfJrK

https://imgur.com/jWdeURB

https://imgur.com/CfyzumH

Additionally: As I mentioned, I'm not 100% sure this is an ant, but I found them in the vicinity of the ant's nest. This house has A LOT of insects coming in, specially spiders. I'm fairly new to the region. If you feel this is not an ant, please let me know your reasoning as I would really like to know what species this little guy or gal is. Also if you'd like to request a different picture and/or test, do let me know, I'll keep the carcass as best as I can

Looks like Solenopsis sp. But those spikes are not natural, check out this video and maybe you can figure out what those spikes are:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb6VB9t5MlQ&ab_channel=AntsCanada

[Salguerovsky]

Hey antperson24! Thanks for your answer, I did read on Cordyceps, but I couldn't find a species that was similar.
However, I think I found the mystery ant! They were not really an ant, they were a Moth Larvae! Apparently a Dirphia genus moth. I've updated the drive with new pictures of the mystery "ant".
The story was: I found another "spiky ant" at the garage door, but this was fresh, it had green slime. I followed the tracks to a Guayaba tree and found a living specimen. Bit of a different head, but same spikes. A beautiful color on their skin contrasting with the red spikes.
Thanks for the help!

[antperson24]

Hey antperson24! Thanks for your answer, I did read on Cordyceps, but I couldn't find a species that was similar.
However, I think I found the mystery ant! They were not really an ant, they were a Moth Larvae! Apparently a Dirphia genus moth. I've updated the drive with new pictures of the mystery "ant".
The story was: I found another "spiky ant" at the garage door, but this was fresh, it had green slime. I followed the tracks to a Guayaba tree and found a living specimen. Bit of a different head, but same spikes. A beautiful color on their skin contrasting with the red spikes.
Thanks for the help!

Oh, yes I see it now!