OAKLEY, Md. (WHTM) — It certainly looks like an ant, doesn’t it? In fact, the red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) isn’t an ant at all, but a wasp. At around 3/4 of an inch long, it’s the largest ...

“I just saw this giant red and black ant in my garden. It almost didn’t look real. Are they dangerous?” — B.H. I’m pretty sure you are referring to an insect known as the red velvet ant aka ...

ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — Is there something bugging you about this time of year? It seems as soon as cool air arrives, insects try to make themselves comfortable in your home. Good Morning Show viewer ...

Scientists found that the dark markings on a species of fluffy wasp reflected less than 1 percent of light. By Katrina Miller The first thing to understand about velvet ants is that they are not, in ...

At the foot of certain shrubs in the Mojave Desert, fluffy white motes skitter like tumbleweeds across the sand. Some are fruit: harmless, fuzzy orbs dropped by the creosote bush. Others are white ...

This insect is not an ant, although it is always referred to as an ant. It looks like a large red and black hairy ant, but is really a wingless female wasp. It is a very nervous insect as it hurries ...

In the animal kingdom, scarlet velvet ants are known to deliver some of the most excruciatingly painful stings. These insects live on the ground, but they are not actually ants at all. Instead, they ...

The Caatinga is a stark, dry shrubland in northeastern Brazil. In Tupi, an Indigenous language, its name means “white forest,” describing the arid grasses, thorny trees and pale, stony soil that ...

The thistledown velvet ant, which is actually a wasp, resembles creosote fuzz. But mimicry isn’t the reason, a new study suggests. By Sabrina Imbler At the foot of certain shrubs in the Mojave Desert, ...