The sting of a female velvet ant is one of the most painful in the animal kingdom. Now, researchers have discovered that these insects have multiple proteins in their venom that make it exquisitely ...

A team of biologists, neurologists and chemists at Indiana University has discovered why the velvet ant's sting is so painful to so many different types of creatures. In their paper published in ...

Velvet ant venom acts on specific pain pathways in mammals and insects, revealing a unique biological defence mechanism ...

New research has found an insect species with markings that are so black that they’re ‘superblack’ or ‘ultrablack’, absorbing ...

If the predator still doesn't let up, the painful wallop of a velvet ant's sting usually convinces them to let go. No animal living today is known to specifically target velvet ants, but a 2018 paper ...

Fire ants bite and sting with a venom called solenopsin ... There are several wasp species that closely resemble ants, including the velvet ant, which is actually a hairy, wingless wasp.