Comments for
Big Red-black insect (female velvet ant or cow kille)

Click here to add your own comments

Thanks for the identification!
by: Anonymous

I saw one of these at my grandmother's farm in Georgia once and all I knew about it was that it was a "big furry ant that looked like a red bee" and my cousin told me to keep away from it. Nobody believed me in later years when I tried to describe it!
ahhhhhh!!!!
by: m+g

OMG this bug is so scary me and my bff got out of the pool and there it was !!! SO SCARY!!!!
female velvet ant or cow killer
by: Moni

Mark
Your photo is of a female velvet ant also called cow killer. Males have black wings while females are wingless. This is actually a wasp. It got it's name because it was said that the sting from the female hurt so bad it would kill a cow. They are shades of yellow and brown or red and black.
They are found in meadows, old fields, and edges of forests especially those with sandy soil.

Adult velvet ants feed on nectar and water. The larva are parasites of bumble bees. The female velvet ant searches for bumble bee nests, digs down and deposits one egg near the brood chamber. Velvet ant larva enter the bumble bee brood chamber, kills those larvae by feeding on them. Larvae pupate in the bumble bee chamber.

Females have a very painful sting if handled.
Velvet ants are not aggressive and will try to escape when encountered.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Insect Identification

Return to Big Red-black insect (female velvet ant or cow kille)




All of Doug's Ebooks Can Be Found Here





Subscribe


Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner



Subscribe in a reader




Subscribe in a reader

E-Mail Updates


Enter Email Address Here:

Delivered by FeedBurner



Videos

Watch Videos


Loading...

.