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Velvet Ant

Dasymutilla asopus

Photo by James McNair
Published on Project Noah
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28.6122, -80.8076

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (2)
Gordon Dietzman
Cool spotting! This is one of the so-called velvet ants, which are not ants at all but wasps. I suspect this particular species is in the genus Dasymutilla. To narrow down the ID, start by checking out this page: http://bugguide.net/node/view/13118/bgpage . I'll be curious as to what you decide this insect is. This is one insect that is best left alone as they can have a very severe sting. Again, very cool spotting.

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National Geographic's Great Nature Project
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Insects and Arachnids of Florida
Photographed
PublishedMarch 17, 2014

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