red and black fuy ant
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Velvet Ants, a.k.a. Cow Killers Ants
Although commonly referred to as the red velvet ant (and in some cases cow killer ant),
this name is misleading because velvet ants are actually wasps.
They get the “velvet” part of their name from the very fuzzy females,
which are wingless and often brightly colored.
Habits
Female cow killer ants dig into the nesting chambers of ground-nesting bees and wasps and lay their eggs on the larvae inside.
When the immature velvet ant is born,
it eats its host and then spins its cocoon within the pupal case of its host.
Habitat
Female cow killer ants are typically seen running somewhat erratically on the ground, especially on bare or sandy areas in the warm summer months.
These pests will occasionally enter structures for insect prey.
Male velvet ants are often found on flowers, although some species are nocturnal.
Threats
Female velvet ants have a very potent sting that has earned them the nickname “cow-killer.” Male red velvet ants lack a stinger but have wings.
red and blak furry unt
One unusual insect that is occasionally seen running around open areas in the yard during July, August, and September is the velvet ant.
Velvet ants look like large hairy ants, but they are actually wasps.
They differ from ants in having only a slight constriction between the thorax and abdomen and having straight rather than elbowed antennae.
The males have two pairs of transparent black wings.
Ants, however, have elbowed antennae, and a “hump” in the constriction between the thorax and abdomen.
Velvet ants are brightly colored.
They are shades of yellow and brown or red and black.
Velvet ants are not aggressive and will try to escape when encountered, but females have a very painful sting if handled.
Females use a long, needle-like stinger concealed at the tip of the abdomen.
Many of the velvet ants can produce a squeaking sound when disturbed.
Adult velvet ants feed on nectar and water.
The immature stages are external parasites of bees and wasps that nest in the ground.
A few species parasitize some flies and beetles.
Consequently, there are no identifiable nests to treat.
There is no effective control measure for them.
This would discourage the ground nesting bees and wasps on which velvet ants feed.
asymutilla occidentalis
is a species of parasitoid wasp native to the eastern United States.
It is commonly mistaken for a member of the true ant family, as the female is wingless.
The species ranges from Connecticut to Kansas in the north and Florida to Texas in the south.
Adults display aposematic coloration, consisting of black overall coloring with an orange-red pattern on the dorsal surface of the thorax and abdomen.
Description and biology
Commonly mistaken for an ant, because of its appearance and its common name, it is a parasitoid wasp species in which the females are wingless, as is true for all females of Mutillidae.
Females are capable of an extremely painful sting, hence the name “cow killer”.
They are quick-moving and often take a defensive posture when threatened.
Instead of creating nests, the females seek out the brood cells of Eastern cicada killers and horse guard wasps as well as other large ground-nesting members of Crabronidae, where they deposit an egg onto a host larva.
The egg quickly hatches into a white, legless grub, which consumes the host and goes through several larval stages prior to pupation.
Unlike the females, males have dark, translucent wings and do not possess a sting.
Males fly low over grass in search of mates. Both sexes make a squeaking noise (stridulation) to warn potential predators (another form of aposematism in females, and automimicry in males)
What are the big, red, fuzzy ants I see sometimes?
The one-inch-long, fuzzy, red and black “ants” that you see are not fire ants.
The females lay their eggs in bumblebee nests.
Many people assume that these big, red, stinging insects are fire ants.
Fire ants are actually quite small (1/16 to almost 1/4 inch long), with the largest workers two or three times larger than the smallest.
Sizes between different colonies can also vary greatly.
Some mounds may have mainly small workers, while others may have more large workers. Queens are about 1/4 inch long.
Description
Eastern velvet ants within the family Mutillidae (cow killers or velvet ants) are, in fact, not ants at all.
Adults are sexually dimorphic wasps, meaning that males and females look different. Females are wingless and can be seen running across grassy fields and open ground.
Males are winged and stingless.
The stinger of members of the order Hymenoptera is a modified egg laying device (“ovipositor”), so only females are capable of stinging.
The eastern velvet ant is the largest velvet ant in the United States, ranging from two-thirds of an inch to 1-inch (15 to 25 mm) in length.
The common name velvet ant originates from the velvety appearance of the dense hairs on most of the body.
Eastern velvet ant females are red or reddish orange in color with a black stripe or patch across the abdomen and black legs and antennae.
Male eastern velvet ants are similar in color pattern but are slenderer than females and possess two pairs of dark brown wings.
Larvae are pale white and grublike.
Adult eastern velvet ants are aposematic, meaning they signal their distastefulness.
Their bright red color and fuzzy appearance warns predators to stay away.
The cuticle, or exoskeleton, is slippery and rock hard.
The eastern velvet ant has a broad continental distribution in the United States but is most commonly encountered in the eastern half of the U.S. Students often see them in mulchy areas of the LSU campus during early fall.
Life Cycle
Cow killers are holometabolous insects, meaning they have egg, larva, pupa and adult life stages.
Adults seek burrows of ground nesting species (e.g., bumblebees, wasps, cicadas and other insects) and lay eggs on the larvae of these insects.
The eggs hatch into larvae that feed on the host larvae.
When fully developed, they pupate in the host’s brood chamber, overwinter and emerge as adults the following season.
How poisonous can a red, black and fuzzy ant be?
It sounds like you are referring to a solitary, wasp known as a “Velvet Ant” or sometimes called the “Cow Killer.”
One usually comes across the wingless females as they are moving across the ground.
They do look like large, colorful, velvety ants.
These wasps have a strong bite and a potent sting that will feel like a jolt of electricity when they sting, hurt like…well, hurt a lot, and usually cause swelling and or pain that persists for more than a day.
Female Velvet Ants Are Flightless and Look Different Than Males
Scientists like big terms for everything, so to say that males and females are different it’s called “sexual dimorphism” (males look different than females).
In many cases they have the even fancier distinction of “reverse sexual dimorphism” which sounds like a bunch kinky wasps, but it just means that males are bigger than females, and they look different from each other.
For a long time male and female velvet ants were not classified in the correct groups because they look so different.
Females are brightly colored and wingless (not all are red, some are orange or even black and white), and they hunt around on the ground while males can be a completely different color, they fly, and are found higher up in vegetation.
Matching the two required some pretty serious observations of ant-philes and researchers to figure out what was going on.
Ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera.
Ants appear in the fossil record across the globe in considerable diversity during the latest Early Cretaceous and early Late Cretaceous, suggesting an earlier origin.
Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period, and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified.
RESOURCE : WIKIPEDIA
