As it happens, velvet ants, known colloquially to Brazilians as “sorcerer ants,” are actually a type of wasp, but the females, which are wingless, give the creatures their name.

Meet the Brazilian Velvet Ant, a Rare ‘Ultra-Black’ Wasp That’s So Dark It Absorbs Almost All Visible Light While the distinctive coloration is thought to be a warning to predators, it also ...

Whenever I asked students to tell me how insects were ecologically important, two responses were the most common.

Scientists found that the dark markings on a species of fluffy wasp reflected less than 1 percent of light. By Katrina Miller The first thing to understand about velvet ants is that they are not ...

Wasps aren’t normally admired for their looks, but one species—Traumatomutilla bifurca, a Brazilian velvet ant—is unlike any other. It has ultra-dark markings that reflect less than 1 ...

Velvet ants have enormous stingers ― half their body length ― and the research paper focused on the full defense system of these near-indestructible wasp parasites against a variety of ...

Adult red velvet ants can grow to about 3/4 of an inch in length and are covered with patterns of black and reddish/orange hair. If you see one, it’s likely a female because the females are ...

Velvet ants are wasps, but named for their fuzzy, often wingless bodies that cause them to resemble large, furry ants. Both wasps and ants are part of the order Hymenoptera , which also includes bees.