Velvet ant Traditional Cache

Description

Velvet ant is not an ant at all!

Mutillidae are a family of more than 3,000 species of wasp whose wingless females resemble ants. Their common name velvet ant refers to their dense pile of hair which most often is bright scarlet or orange but may also be black, white, silver, or gold. They are known for their extremely painful sting, facetiously said to be strong enough to kill a cow, hence the common name cow killer or cow ant is applied to some species. Unlike a real ant, they do not have drones, workers, and queens.

The exoskeleton of all velvet ants is unusually tough. This characteristic allows them to successfully invade the nests of their prey and also helps them retain moisture. Males have wings but females uniformly are wingless. They exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism; the males and females are so different that it is almost impossible to associate the two sexes of a species unless they are captured while mating. In a few species the male is so much larger than the female that he carries her aloft while mating, which is also seen in the related family


This cache has been placed with permission for the CREW Trust and
the South Florida Water Management District

Good luck!