Velvet ant is a 3-star creature card from the Iron Age. Velvet ants aren't ants at all: they're wingless wasps with a very painful sting.
Bonus by grade
| Grade | Copies needed | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 0 | +10% combat damage |
| Uncommon | 2 | +18% combat damage |
| Rare | 5 | +30% combat damage |
| Epic | 10 | +45% combat damage |
| Legendary | 20 | +70% combat damage |
Duplicates raise the grade: Uncommon at 2, Rare at 5, Epic at 10, Legendary at 20.
Codex
- Common: Velvet ants are wasps, not ants.
- Uncommon: The females have no wings and walk like ants.
- Rare: They are covered in bright, velvety hair.
- Epic: Their sting is very painful.
- Legendary: Some are nicknamed cow killers because of it.
Field notes are reviewed regularly. Spot something wrong? Tell us.
Field guide
| Size | About 12–25 mm long (half an inch to an inch) |
| Nest | None; solitary females search sandy ground for nests of other insects |
| Diet | Young eat their host; what adults eat is not well known |
| Defence | Very painful sting; hard body and a squeak when disturbed |
| Active | Mostly summer, with usually one generation a year |
| Lifespan | Not well known |
| Where it lives | Warm, dry, open places, from sandy ground to towns and farmland |
Did you know?
- Females lay one or two eggs on a host pupa, and the young eat it after hatching.
- Most hosts are ground-nesting bees and wasps; a few velvet ants attack beetles and flies.
- They overwinter as pre-pupae inside the host's nest.
Sources: citybugs.tamu.edu