09/03/2026
Here is a rare sight !! A male Eastern Velvet Ant — Dasymutilla occidentalis — also called the "cow killer"
Not actually an ant — it's a parasitoid wasp in the family Mutillidae. Females are wingless and look like big fuzzy ants running on the ground
This one is a male — you can tell because he has dark wings. Males are slender, winged, and cannot sting. Females are the ones with the famously painful sting.
That black with bright orange-red is warning coloration — aposematic coloration that says "leave me alone." Adults are black overall with an orange-red pattern on the thorax and abdomen
They're super common in Florida — range is Florida to Texas and up the East Coast — and you see them in summer running across sandy areas, mulch, driveways. Very common around The Villages.
If you see the wingless, all-fuzzy red-and-black one sprinting on the ground — that's the female. That one you definitely want to give space — her sting is rated as one of the most painful in the US, hence the cow killer nickname, though it doesn't actually kill cows.
Pretty cool find — most people only ever see the females!
