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Project Noah Nature School
Hoplomutilla Opima
The bright colors of velvet ants serve as warning signals. They are known for their extremely painful sting, said to be strong enough to kill a cow, hence the common name cow killer or cow ant is applied to some species. Unlike a real ant, they do not have drones, workers, and queens. Although some species are strictly nocturnal, female mutillids are commonly observed running during the day (as this one was).
Mutillidae occur worldwide, with some 5000 species, mainly in the tropics.
Just to be clear, velvet ants are wingless wasps that mimic ants, right down to living communally, usually in excavated tunnels.
Spotted on Oct 2, 2009
Submitted on Apr 2, 2011
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