The scarlet velvet ant is very well known for its extremely painful sting. Less well known is that the velvet ant is not actually an ant at all—it is a type of wingless parasitic wasp. The ...

The email from Trip Lamb, biology professor at Eastern Carolina University, said, “As a velvet ant sting survivor, you may appreciate the attached.” The attachment was a scientific paper ...

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 ...

It takes about 11 times more force to squish a velvet ant than a honeybee. Velvet ants' bodies are also rounded, meaning that attempted bites and stings tend not to do any damage. If the predator ...

Army ants, with their large mandibles and painful stings, may prey on reptiles ... species that closely resemble ants, including the velvet ant, which is actually a hairy, wingless wasp.