Photo by Drees. A tiphiid , Myzinum sp. Photo by Drees.
Females are wingless and covered with dense hair, superficially resembling ants.
They are black overall with patches of dense orange-red hair on the thorax and abdomen. Males are similar but have wings and can not sting. Several other species of velvet ants are common in Texas, including the gray velvet-ant or thistle down mutillid , Dasymutilla beutenmulleri , and D. fulvohirta . Winged males can be confused with other Hymenoptera. Adults of the tiphiid wasp, Myzinum sp.