The wingless of more than 3000 species of wasps resemble large ants with a colourful ‘velvety’ coat of fur, the reason why they are also known as velvet ants. The hair is usually bright red or orange, but may also be black, white, silver or gold. The black-and-white kind are called  ‘panda’ ants because of their striking similarity to the iconic Chinese bear. They even have black-ringed eyes!

Panda ants (or wasps) live in Chile. The colours may be a warning to predators because the females, unlike the males, have a powerful sting. The painful sting does not contain much venom, and there has been no recorded instance of such an occurrence, but velvet ants in general have earned a reputation as cow killers!’

The males have wings and look much more like wasps, but they don’t have stingers. The females stingers are modified egg-lying organs or ovipositors. The female lays her eggs in the nests of ground-nesting bumblebees, right next to the bee larva. When the young panda ants emerge, they feed on the host’s larvae.

Bee Fly

A bumbiebee is an insect few predators will tackle because it looks like an uninviting striped hairball. The bee fly is relatively harmless. However, because it has a furry striped body, just like a bumblebee, predators such as ambush bugs and crab spiders that normally eat files, avoid it.

The fur jacket also helps females when they have to lay eggs. The female bee fly seeks out the nests of mining bees and sneaks in. She ticks the eggs out from, the ovipositor at the end of her abdomen so that they land inside the bee nest.  Once the larvae hatch, they feed on the pollen stored for the baby bees and the baby bees themselves!

Bee files don’t have a sting but feed on flower nectar like bees.