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Red-haired Velvet Ant

Dasymutilla coccinea

  


Photo ©Patricia McQuade

This insect is not an ant. It is a wasp. Its hair can be red, orange or yellow. The velvet ant lays its eggs inside the body of living caterpillars, ants, bees and beetles. It has such a hard skin that it can walk right into a bumblebee colony to lay its eggs. The bumblebees try to sting it in self-defense, but their stingers can’t get through the skin.

The Velvet Ant looks fuzzy and friendly, but don’t pick it up because it will sting you. It is called “cow-killer,” and that reminds us how bad it will hurt if you get stung by this wasp.
 

 
Earth Cards
Nature Trading Cards

What are Earth Cards?

Trading cards?  Flash cards?  Game cards? Animal cards? Earth cards are all of these.

  • Collect them like baseball cards.
  • Play games with them like a game deck.
  • Use them as flash cards and species cards for learning. 
  • Trade them with your friends.

Order your set of
Nature Trading Cards

Box of 35 cards          $5.00
Box of 65 cards        $10.00
Box of 100 cards       $15.00

Purchase directly from this website with your check or PayPal.

You can customize your box of cards. Just go to Choose your cards and pick the species you want included.  
A box of Nature Trading Cards would be a nice gift for your child's classroom. You can also order them in quantities, at special prices, to use as fundraisers for your school. Schools