Cow killer ants (Dasymutilla occidentalis), also called red velvet ants and eastern velvet ants, are a species of velvet ant. Velvet ants are wasps, but named for their fuzzy, often wingless ...

Despite their name and looks, velvet ants are actually wasps. Many of these delightfully fuzzy insects exhibit bright, contrasting shades of black with red, orange or white. Their bold bodies serve as ...

“I just saw this giant red and black ant in my garden. It almost didn’t look real. Are they dangerous?” — B.H. I’m pretty sure you are referring to an insect known as the red velvet ant ...

Few creatures can tangle with a velvet ant and walk away unscathed. These ground-dwelling insects are not ants, but parasitic wasps known for their excruciating stings. Now researchers have ...

The sting of a female velvet ant is one of the most painful in the animal kingdom. Now, researchers have discovered that these insects have multiple proteins in their venom that make it ...

A team of biologists, neurologists and chemists at Indiana University has discovered why the velvet ant's sting is so painful to so many different types of creatures. In their paper published in ...

The wasp species known as the "velvet ant" has a pattern of white and ultra-black coloration. © shrike2 via iNaturalist under CC BY-NC 4.0 The Caatinga is a stark ...