ARTHROPOD FACT SHEET 

      RED VELVET ANT "COW KILLER"

The Arthropod  I had chosen for my Project was very hard two get facts on I  sat the computer for a few hours only to find very few facts of that  I was told  to do. There for these are some of the answers I was able to find.   

kingdom	Animalia
phylum	Arthropoda
class	insecta
order	ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies
family	velvet ants
genus	dasymutilla
species	cow killer

Habitat	Meadows, old fields, edges of forest.
Physical Description	Invades the nest of  bees, . Female searches for bumble bee nests, digs down and puts one egg near brood chamber. Larva of the Dasymutilla enters the bumble bee brood chamber, kills those larvae, and feeds on them. Larva pupates in the bumble bee brood chamber.

Behavior

Males feed on nectar and the women usually wander the grounds during day