The scarlet velvet ant is very well known for its extremely painful sting. Less well known is that the velvet ant is not actually an ant at all—it is a type of wingless parasitic wasp. The ...
The sting of a female velvet ant is one of the most painful in the animal kingdom. Now, researchers have discovered that these insects have multiple proteins in their venom that make it ...
An ant that disappears into the forest floor, a bird that demands attention from mates—for these animals, an inky black ...
A velvet ant bite like “hot oil from the deep fryer” delivers an array of peptides that inflicts pain on insects and mammals alike.
If the predator still doesn't let up, the painful wallop of a velvet ant's sting usually convinces them to let go. No animal living today is known to specifically target velvet ants, but a 2018 paper ...
An international team of scientists recently published detailed studies of a Brazilian species of velvet ant that they discovered to have superblack, or ultrablack, patches. An ultrablack ...
It's considered about as painful as the warrior wasp's sting, and slightly more painful than that of a velvet ant. Tarantula hawks are fairly docile unless provoked, although the threat of ...
BRASILIA, Brazil – A new study has revealed the complex makeup of an ant found in South America that can absorb nearly all visible light. Researchers analyzed the velvet ant’s exoskeleton and ...
About the size of a board game die, one species of velvet ant is known for its distinct black-and-white markings, which dazzle the eye as the creatures scurry across tropical savanna and a dry ...