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.
