THE VELVET ANT 249 



CHAPTER XVI. 



June 17 to June 30. 



The Velvet Ant. 



FLORENCE. What's this thing I've caught? It was 

 running towards the door of our ants. It's as long as a 

 Carpenter, but 'heavier, wears an orange-colored velvet 

 coat, has ice-hook jaws, feelers almost like an ant's, a body 

 covered with short hairs, and the thing has an ant's foot 

 with sharp claws for digging. Is it an ant! 



ALBERT. It's called the Velvet Ant, but it isn't an ant 

 at all. It belongs with the wasps. A girl brought me a big 

 gray one from up the coast. The one she gave me looked 

 like a small wingless bumblebee or a tiny skunk. 



CECIL. I've seen three around here and two out in the 

 mountains. They are common along the coast and in the 

 warm, sandy parts of the United States. If you knew as 

 much about this animal as I do you wouldn't 



FLORENCE. Ouch, it stung me! Quit your laughing. 

 It doesn't hurt much. Tell us more about it. Ouch ! 



ALBERT. A university man gave me its book name as 

 "Mutilla Calif ornica." That's the little yellow one, but 

 they are of various beautiful colors, and one big kind has 

 long gray hair. They have several names: Velvet Ant, 

 Cow Killer and Skunk Ant. You can tell they are digging 

 insects by the way they can bury themselves in sand. 



CECIL. The males have wings, but the females haven't. 

 They don't live in colonies, but alone, like the cat. They 



