Screenshot Saturday - Red Velvet Ant in Action

MikeSlugDisco

Community Manager
Staff member
Community Manager
The red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) is named for its appearance, but it is in fact a type of wingless wasp. It is colloquially called the "cow killer" for its infamously painful sting. When threatened, they will use this sting to defend themselves. It is exceptionally potent, and will quickly decimate a foraging trail of ants.


They will be one of the many enemies encountered by your fire ants in the upcoming 4th tier of Empires of the Undergrowth.
 

VarmintLP

Queen
Backer
If I remember correctly, some guy on Youtube tried the sting. The insect looked different tho. Could be due to lighting, the camera didn't pick up the color or it was a different variant.
Btw one thing I was thinking about is, some insects can actually run out of their ammo. For example spider's can run out of their spidersilk which is why there are spiders with bigger butts to store more of the material. Do you think that this would be something to consider as well for an upcoming update?
It would be interesting to know. :)
 
The red velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis) is named for its appearance, but it is in fact a type of wingless wasp. It is colloquially called the "cow killer" for its infamously painful sting. When threatened, they will use this sting to defend themselves. It is exceptionally potent, and will quickly decimate a foraging trail of ants.


They will be one of the many enemies encountered by your fire ants in the upcoming 4th tier of Empires of the Undergrowth.
This is a piece of stunning artwork.
 

person111

Colony
Ecosystem Beta Tester
If I remember correctly, some guy on Youtube tried the sting. The insect looked different tho. Could be due to lighting, the camera didn't pick up the color or it was a different variant.
Btw one thing I was thinking about is, some insects can actually run out of their ammo. For example spider's can run out of their spidersilk which is why there are spiders with bigger butts to store more of the material. Do you think that this would be something to consider as well for an upcoming update?
It would be interesting to know. :)
it probably looked different because it was either in a different stage of development or he was just holding a different species, (Since there are at least 150 species that are classified as velvet ants). Also maybe it would be cool if spiders can run out of their silk or have the feature to store more silk, who knows what will be implemented in the future.
 
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