This Velvet Ant Provides New Insights Into Nature’s Ultrablack Secrets
New research has found an insect species with markings that are so black that they’re ‘superblack’ or ‘ultrablack’, absorbing ...
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Meet the Brazilian Velvet Ant, a Rare 'Ultra-Black' Wasp That's So Dark It Absorbs Almost All Visible Light
In the female velvet ant, these microstructures include overlapping stacks of lamellae, or layers of tissue, beneath dense, hair-like setae. Combined with a black pigment, these features in the ...
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‘Ultra-black‘ Velvet Ant Reflects Less Than 1 Percent of Light
The velvet ant is the first known ultra-black species of the order Hymenoptera, which includes over 150,000 species of ants, wasps, sawflies, and bees. It’s a rare coloring in the wild ...
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Velvet ants: flamboyant and fuzzy with extreme PPE
insectivorous predators will commonly find themselves faced with black velvet ants with abdomens coated in a flaming orange fuzz. This distribution and colouring make up the Texan mimicry ring, ...
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Brazilian velvet ant’s ultrablack coloring absorbs nearly all light
About the size of a board game die, one species of velvet ant is known for its distinct black-and-white markings, which dazzle the eye as the creatures scurry across tropical savanna and a dry ...