Thanks to Peter, I'm excited to share a velvet ant (Dasymutilla sp.) photo with you. We were walking in the Bodega Dunes last weekend when this small orange and black insect went racing by us. We caught up with it and I managed one photo for the record.
Velvet ants aren't really ants. Although they look hairy and have an ant-like appearance, they're actually wasps! The females (as above) don't have wings. They run over the sand in search of an underground bee or wasp nest to parasitize. (If you encounter a velvet ant, beware, their sting is very painful.)
P.S. For more information about velvet ants, check out this story from the BBC.
and as I learned as a small boy, you can gently pin them down with a twig and they become very, very vocal. And 'yes' I did experience their sting when I picked up the first one I saw at 9. I have walked wide ever since.
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