These animals evolved to be ‘ultrablack’—here’s why
An ant that disappears into the forest floor, a bird that demands attention from mates—for these animals, an inky black ...
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Why the scarlet velvet ant's sting is so painful to so many different species
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 ...
Natural History Museum%2c London3y
Velvet ants: flamboyant and fuzzy with extreme PPE
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 ...
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Velvet ants have the Swiss Army knife of venoms
A velvet ant bite like “hot oil from the deep fryer” delivers an array of peptides that inflicts pain on insects and mammals alike.
Natural History Museum%2c London1y
Tarantula hawks: The most painful wasp sting in the world explained
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 ...
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Ants, facts and information
Fire ants bite and sting with a venom called solenopsin ... There are several wasp species that closely resemble ants, including the velvet ant, which is actually a hairy, wingless wasp.