A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Mutillidae
Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair which most often is bright scarlet or orange but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. Their bright colours serve as aposematic signals. They are known for their extremely painful sting, facetiously said to be strong enough to kill a cow, hence the common name cow killer or cow ant is applied to some species.
Do they accept non-ants in the ants mission? Mutillids are wasps, not ants. They only look like ants, that's how they got their common name.
This is a female Mutillidae wasp. They are commonly called "velvet ants" because the wingless females resemble furry ants. The females have a painful sting, so don't touch!
Spotted on Jun 23, 2006
Submitted on Apr 3, 2012
