To Kill a Cow

I spotted this lethal beauty in the driveway down by the mailbox last evening. She's a fairly hyper creature and it was late in the day, so the pictures are so-so.

If you ever see one of these, don't pick it up! The velvet ant, AKA cow killer AKA mule killer, packs an extremely painful sting. But she isn't really an ant at all. She's a wasp. You can tell it's a female, coz she has no wings.

Despite the nicknames, she isn't aggressive and her venom isn't all that toxic. If she's startled, she'll usually give a warning, by means of stridulation, before stinging.