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Never seen this bug before
Hi!
I’ve looked over many pages on your site and just haven’t seen anything quite like this. It’s possible I just didn’t click on the right link to find this bug, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask anyway. My mother and I own a house in Quail Valley, CA, and we see this bug appear every now-and-then in our front yard. My Mom says she thinks it kind of looks like an ant, I say it looks like a beetle. Either way, this thing is weird! Bright red and dark black – hairy all over. It’s about an inch and a half long. I attached a picture. Tell me if you know about this creature! Thanks
Jade

Hi Jade,
This is a Velvet Ant, a flightless female wasp. Watch out, she stings. We found a species match on BugGuide for you. We believe your species is Dasymutilla magnifica.

Update: (04/02/2008) ID for insects
Hey, my name is Will, this is a list of the ID’s for the velvet ant page. 29. Dasymutilla magnifica. hope this helps a bit.

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