Here’s a stylishly colored wasp with some formidable defenses: It’s a male velvet ant in the Timulla genus, probably Timulla subhyalina.
While this particular insect looks nothing like an ant and doesn’t have a velvety body, many of the other wasps in the Mutillidae family do. Female velvet ants don’t have wings, and they’re shaped like large, colorful ants. Many (most?) Mutillidae at Mount Pisgah are covered with short orange or red hair, making them appear velvety.
But don’t try to pet them. Velvet ants are known for their powerful stings. Although their nickname, “cow killer,” is a bit of an exaggeration, it’s best to give the females the right of way. Males aren’t equipped with stingers.
In addition to its sting, these indomitable insects have a few other defenses. Their strong exoskeleton requires 11 times more force to crush than a honeybee (I hope the experiments didn’t use live specimens). They make an audible squeak, and discharge a chemical warning scent when they’re threatened. And, if any predators still decide to try to eat them, research shows they aren’t a tasty snack.
The study referenced below presented velvet ants to a series of birds, lizards, shrews and toads. Of them, an American toad was the only one to swallow a Mutillidae wasp without regurgitating it, and the toad suffered with twitching and slowed breathing for more than 30 minutes. The subsequent times a velvet ant was presented to it, the toad ignored or backed away from it.
All velvet ants are parasites of ground-nesting bees and wasps. Females lay eggs on larvae when they’re in the pre-pupa or pupa stage. The velvet ant larvae then eat the young bee or wasp and later emerge from the nest as an adult.
Look for these eye-catching wasps on flowers and watch for females as they cross trails and scurry through open areas this time of year.
Stay curious!
See more of Karen’s work here.
Sources:
From a Colorado site: https://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/bspm/arthropodsofcolorado/Velvet-Ants.pdf. Accessed 8/4/25.
Research on velvet ant predation: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6010712/. Accessed 8/4/25.
All photos by Karen Richards.