But scurrying across this land of extreme whiteness is, paradoxically, one of the darkest animals on Earth: a species of velvet ant known as Traumatomutilla bifurca. With its furry exterior and ...

By Katrina Miller The first thing to understand about velvet ants is that they are not, in fact, ants. They’re wasps, some of which are wingless, and are named in part for their fluffy exteriors.

A velvet ant bite like “hot oil from the deep fryer” delivers an array of peptides that inflicts pain on insects and mammals alike.