Velvet Ants – Insect Tanks?

A red velvet ant.

This is the remarkable velvet ant! Despite being called the velvet ‘ant’, it is actually a species of wasp, females lack wings whereas males do. This bizarre insect has an incredibly thick exoskeleton, aposematic colouration and a very painful sting. These multiple defenses are present to avoid its predation in the wild. Velvet ants are colloquially named ‘cow killers’ in defence to their excruciatingly painful sting. Velvet ants come in a variety of colours – reds, oranges, silver, whites and yellows. With patterns on their abdomen and head regions. Thus, velvet ants are popular in the pet trade in the US, caught wild as they cannot be bred. Their larvae are parasitoids (meaning they consume other insects offered by their mothers) of other solitary Hymenopterans’ larval stages. As well as, other insect young. To give an impression of how hard and difficult it is to penetrate the velvet ants’ shells, insect pins find it hard to break through, and even bend when the pressure is added.

A fluffy, white velvet ant!

Fascinating Phasmids!

Fascinating Phasmids is the first episode of Interesting Invertebrates. This episode consists of rare and colourful stick insects (or phasmids) such as the recently discovered achrioptera manga. If you have any suggestions for the next invertebrate I should cover, write your suggestion in the comments of the video below. Enjoy!

Fascinating Phasmids (ABOVE.)

The Giant Isopod!

A Bathynomus Giganteus’ underside, pictured by NOAA, Ocean Explorer.

This is the Giant Isopod, a gigantic, aquatic relative of the centimetre-or-so long woodlice in your garden. Woodlice (roly-pollies, pillbugs etc.) or isopods are actually a terrestrial crustacean rather than an insect or ‘bug’… and this one is a massive, marine one! Bathynomus giganteus, similarly to other isopods, have a marsupium or brood pouch – where their young develop and emerge as mini versions of the adults. They are abundant at depths of 310-2140 m in cold waters in the West Atlantic. Bathynomus giganteus, specifically, is classified a supergiant species at 17-50 cm long!! The ‘giant’ classification in giant isopods (and most of the bathynomus genus) are typically 8-15 cm long, which is still large. These crustaceans have two reflective, compound eyes, seven pairs of legs of which the first are modified like the pedipalps of spiders (or manipulating food) and have a tough exoskeleton. Isn’t it fascinating?