In the female velvet ant, these microstructures include overlapping stacks of lamellae, or layers of tissue, beneath dense, hair-like setae. Combined with a black pigment, these features in the ...

This makes the velvet ant’s color what scientists call “ultrablack” or “superblack”. Traditional black colorations reflect around five to ten percent of the light that hits it ...

insectivorous predators will commonly find themselves faced with black velvet ants with abdomens coated in a flaming orange fuzz. This distribution and colouring make up the Texan mimicry ring, ...