Red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) is a ferocious parasitic wasp. It's easy to misidentify the wingless female as a red, giant, fluffy ant. Its bite brings such long-lasting, intense pain that it was named from the exaggerated description that the pain of its bite could kill a cow.

Yellow velvet ant is named ‘velvet’ for the soft red-brown hairs that cover its upper body. Despite its common name, it isn’t actually an ant, but a species of wasp. Even though it has a cute and fluffy appearance, it should be avoided since it is one of a genus of wasps that give particularly painful stings.

While called a velvet ant, this insect is actually a type of flightless wasp. With its large size and fuzzy appearance, this insect is interesting to look at, but humans shouldn't get too close. When this wasp stings, it delivers high levels of pain that even gave it the nickname "the cow killer," although the sting is not deadly.

A quintessential desert dweller, magnificent Velvet Ant shows an intriguing adaptation with its wingless nature. This unique trait aids its survival by reducing desiccation risks, supplying a tactical advantage in its harsh ecosystem. Magnificent Velvet Ant is known to be a parasitoid, laying its eggs inside host insects, demonstrating an indirect beneficial role by regulating other insect populations. Far from being passive, magnificent Velvet Ant also displays aggressive defense mechanisms using its potent sting to ward off predators.

The thistledown Velvet Ant is a diurnal creature recognized by its vibrant velvet-like hair covering, which displays a myriad of colors, most notably red-orange and black. While often mistaken for a type of ant due to its wingless females, thistledown Velvet Ant is neither an ant nor a bee but rather belongs to a group of wasp-like insects. Adult thistledown Velvet Ant predominantly hunt other insect larvae, whereas the methodical females engage in a unique reproductive strategy by laying their eggs in the nests of ground-nesting bees and wasps, making them effective kleptoparasites.

It’s hard not to notice the yellow velvet ant, named for its brightly colored body covered in bristly hairs. While its common name denotes ant, it is a type of stinging wasp. Found primarily in Mexico and the southwestern United States, the wasp does not live in colonies; it is a solitary, ground-dwelling insect.