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Velvet ant
Hi Bugman,
A few hours on line and I identified this "ant" as a wasp called "Velvet Ant", funny name for a wasp. Then, I saw that you had a picture of one under wasps.
Regards,
Denis
Louisville, Kentucky
Hi Denis,
Nice clear image of a Velvet Ant or Cow Killer, Dasymutilla occidentalis.
What the Heck?!
Hi again.
My daughter saw this bug running across our driveway this afternoon and I saw one yesterday in a totally different part of our yard (we have 4 acres). We saw some last year too. It looks like a huge, furry, red ant?! It was about 1 1⁄2 -2 inches long and I didn’t want to kill it to take a picture and had a hard time keeping the camera on him…running around too fast. It really is a good looking and vibrant bug. We live in Winston-Salem , North Carolina .
Cheers,
E Smith
Hi E.,
We recently created a Velvet Ant page especially for these flightless female wasps that are also known as Cow Killers because of their painful sting.
Beautiful Six Legged Bug….What is it????
Can anyone tell me just what kind of bug this is? I live just north of Dallas, Texas and found several of these bugs in my yard yesterday July19, 2005. It has six legs and is covered in a beautiful orange to crimson red and black velvet, It almost looks like a large ant. I have never seen this bug before……please respond.
Peter
Hi Peter,
Our site has a brand new search engine and we would just love it if people would use it. Typing in your key words, like velvet, should have led you directly to where you wanted to go, the Velvet Ant page. Your Velvet Ant, Dasymutilla occidentalis, is sometimes called a Cow Killer, no doubt because the sting of this flightless female wasp is quite painful.
Unknown ant
Hi,
I found your site while trying to identify this ant; hoping you can help. We have lots of black ants and tiny brown sugar ants. This one is about 8 – 9 mm long; never saw anything like it around here. It was on a desk in the office.
Thank you,
Roger
Hi Roger,
We were pretty sure this was one of the flightless wasps but we checked with Eric Eaton for confirmation. Here is his response: “Ding-ding-ding! Right AGAIN! It is another species of velvet ant, possibly Dasymutilla bioculata (spelling on the species?).” Velvet Ants are actually wingless female wasps and they can sting painfully.
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. image 36. Dasymutilla alesia. hope this helps a bit.
cool site!
Very interesting site. I have a couple of bugs I can’t identify. Both from Southern California. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Ron Drake
Hi Ron,
Your photos of the Thistledown Velvet Ant or Gray Velvet Ant, Dasymutilla gloriosa, are very nice. She is a female flightless wasp and can deliver a painful sting.
Ed. Note Update: (12/02/2005)
ID corrections, etc. I’ve just discovered your excellent site (directed there by “This is True”), and as a hymenopterist have a few comments: All of the “thistledown velvet ants” shown are actually Dasymutilla nocturna, not Dasymutilla gloriosa. The latter has the erect hairs somewhat sparser and more “untidy”, the body is a reddish brown, not black, and all the hairs are whitish (no black hairs), so the legs look whitish.
I hope these comments are useful.
Denis
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. image 37. Dasymutilla sackeni, D. nocturna restricted. hope this helps a bit.
Velvet Ant and Unknown Spider
Thistle Down Velvet Ant. I’m not really partial to blondes, but this little lady caught my eye in the parking lot at work in Poway, San Diego County. Don’t worry, I resisted the urge to pet her. I know she packs a painful stinger. I’m also including an unidentified spider. He was about the same size as a full grown green lynx, which are abundant in this area. Possibly another type of lynx?
Love your site,
Bernard Davis
Hi Bernard,
Thank you so much for your great photo of the Thistledown Velvet Ant, also known as the Gray Velvet Ant, Dasymutilla gloriosa. This is a new species for our site. The wingless female does have a painful sting. She wanders about on the ground searching for sand wasp burrows. She lays her eggs there and the young Velvet Ant larva then feasts on both the larval wasp as well as the food source of paralyzed flies the female Sand Wasp provides for her young. Male Velvet Ants fly.
Ed. Note Update: (12/02/2005)
ID corrections, etc. I’ve just discovered your excellent site (directed there by “This is True”), and as a hymenopterist have a few comments: All of the “thistledown velvet ants” shown are actually Dasymutilla nocturna, not Dasymutilla gloriosa. The latter has the erect hairs somewhat sparser and more “untidy”, the body is a reddish brown, not black, and all the hairs are whitish (no black hairs), so the legs look whitish.
I hope these comments are useful.
Denis
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. image 38. Dasymutilla sackeni hope this helps a bit.
Fuzzy bug
HI. Last October I found this fuzzy red/black bug following me. It was the weirdest thing that I’ve ever seen. I would move then make a noise and the bug would move in my direction. I’ve never seen a bug like this before. Any ideas what it is?
Thanks,
Victoria
Hi Victoria,
Lucky for you that you didn’t try to pick up that Cow Killer. Cow Killer is a local name for this species of Velvet Ant, which is in fact a flightless female wasp. Dasymutilla occidentalis gets its colorful common name because many people believe the painful sting is strong enough to kill a cow. They run quickly and are very aggressive. The males fly. They range from New York to Florida and west to Texas, but they are most common in the South.
unusual ant
This ant was found away from civilized area, in south central Missouri. I happened to see it on a trail for ATVs. The length of the ant is about the same as the diameter of a nickel. It was suggested to me that it may be a woodcutter, though nothing specific. I look forward to any information you can provide.
Your unusual ant goes by the common name Velvet Ant, but it is in fact a flightless female wasp. In the south, they are known as Cow-Killers because of the painful sting. The scientific name is Dasymutilla occidentalis.
Yesterday, July 7, 2004, I was walking out of my garage with my two young sons (ages 20 mos. and 3 yrs.) and I turned my back for literally 20 seconds. My three year old comes running up to me and says his hand hurts. It looks dirty so I asked if he fell and he says, “a bug.” I asked if the bug bit him and he says no, but insists that his hand hurts. In order to distract him, I suggested that we get the mail. On walking to the mailbox, he says, “there it is!” I look to my right and see this bright red bug walking on the driveway. The bug was 3/4 inch long, I would guess, and the brightest red I have ever seen. Mostly red with black legs and, I would guess, three black stripes. I was startled and afraid as I do a lot of gardening and have never seen anything like it, so I stomped it with my shoe. I had to run an errand, but about 30 minutes later I checked my son’s hand as I was worried because the bug looked so wicked. His right thumb had swelled to about 1.5 times the size of his other thumb and was very hard/tight. It also had a white tiny pin prick in the middle of the fatty part of his thumb. I started to panic a bit, but within another half hour, the swelling started to go down and he said he was “all better.” When I got home, I started to dig for information on the internet and after two hours found your site. Part of my problem was that I thought I had seen a beetle of some sort so I typed in red bug (which came up with chiggers), red beetle (which came up with a red milkweed beetle, sort of close but not quite right) and red locust (which was definitely not what I saw). The body was segmented in three parts and I thought since it was crawling that it could not be a bee. After finding your site, I took tweezers and a white envelope and went to see if the bug parts were still in any shape to take a photo. I collected the bug and noticed it was very furry and in particular it had sort of longer legs than I had originally thought that were also furry. It was not as red as when I saw it walking, but it had been about four hours in the hot Georgia sun. I showed it to my husband when he got home and he said it looked like a wasp or hornet so I came back to your site and saw a picture of the bug I think I saw – a Velvet Ant, listed under wasps. I have become fascinated with your site since yesterday and read many clips just to learn more. Once I had a name for the bug I saw, I tried to find more information via several search engines, but with little success other than some pictures. My son seems fine now, but more of the story continues to come forth. He told me today that “the red bug was walking in the grass and (he) tried to pick it up.” Yikes! He also told me that he isn’t “supposed to touch bugs without asking Mommy because it might bite (him).” I guess maybe a good lesson for him since he is fascinated with all wildlife and touches without thinking usually. Anyway, none of the sites I could find really listed if a sting by a Velvet Ant is harmful, other than the pain. Do you know? Are they common in Georgia (we live in Forsyth County, north of Atlanta)? Do they change color (become a brighter red than normal) when they have been messed with or picked up? Are the males the same bright colors as this female was? Do you think I will see more? If I do see another one, I will try to snap a picture to send to you. After seeing your site, I felt guilty for killing it. It would have been a very good picture, I think. Thanks for your site!! Sorry for the “long version” of my story,
Stephanie Moore
PS. I saw an email by Eric Eaton referring to www.bugguide.net as a good source for info. In this case, it was not very helpful for me (I am a bug idiot, more or less). Although, I did see that some of the pictures of the Velvet Ant that were posted were taken in Georgia, which answers that question I guess.
Hi Stephanie,
Velvet Ants are female flightless wasps. The males are smaller and have wings. There are many species of Velvet Ants, and some are bright red, others orange and still others yellow. The sting is painful, but not serious unless there is an alergic reaction. I love the name Cow Killer for the species Dasymutilla occidentalis, which is common in the South. Perhaps another websearch with the scientific name will give you additional information. I am very happy our site was helpful.
I live in Rock Hill, SC and came across this insect while I was weeding the monkey grass. It was about about inch long, had three body sections like an ant but it’s body was fuzzy like a bumble bee. It was bright red with black stripes like a bee, no wings but had six black legs. It didn’t move very fast but crawled along the monkey grass and yard. Can you tell me what this was?
Sounds like a Velvet Ant, (Dasymutilla occidentalis) a female flightless wasp, capable of delivering quite a sting. They are sometimes known as cow-killers or mule-killers, and are feared by tobacco farmers who often get stung. See if this photo matches.
