OLNEY, Ill. (AP) -- An Olney resident named Bruno Biava can be very glad he didn't touch the brightly colored and furry "ant" he saw crawling across his driveway.
Biava says the bright red insect he spotted Monday struck him as the biggest ant he had ever seen, so he trapped it under a jar and took it to a University of Illinois Extension office for identification.
He learned that what he had found was called a red "velvet ant;" but it wasn't an ant at all. A velvet ant is a wingless female wasp which packs one of the most painful stings in North America. Other names for the velvet ant are "cow killer" and "mule killer."
Biava later released the insect -- but not anywhere near children.
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