Although related to wasps, the wingless females resemble ants and have a dense coating of velvety hair.
Males have wings and actively fly.
There are many genera and species of velvet ants. The most commonly encountered and largest species is known as the cow killer, Dasymutilla occidentalis. Biology Velvet ants are solitary wasps. Immature stages or larvae feed externally on the prepupal or pupal stages of ground-nesting bees, other wasps and some flies and beetles. The wingless females actively search for hosts on which to deposit eggs.