The Tiny Face of a Killer

The visage of a tiny velvet ant peers up in this scanning electron microscope image magnified 23 times. This tiny creature, genusDasymutillais not actuallyan ant at all, but a wasp. She (this is a female) boasts a nasty sting, especially if youre another wasp or bee. In order to reproduce, velvet ants lay their eggs inside the larvae of wasps and bees. When the eggs hatch, they feed on the still living but paralyzed larvae that house them.