Yes they are wide spread through Kentucky, eastern Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia also Southern Indiana. But they are usually found on ranches
Yes.
they live in sandy areas.
yes
Most Mutillidae (velvet ants) live in the warmer parts of the planet, and mainly in fairly dry areas. Some of them live in nearly desert areas. They must live in places where they will find insects on which their young can feed and grow. These prey (or host) insects have their own habitats, so the Mutillidae must be adapted to where their particular hosts live, on which their larvae can feed. Most of the hosts are bees or wasps, while other kinds of velvet ants need caterpillars, beetles, cockroaches and a few other types of insects. Whatever the habitat of the host, the velvet ant must be able to live in the same habitat, usually sandy dry areas with suitable plant life.
Yes, they do. I lived in SW Missouri and seen them when I was younger.
red velvet ants also known as killer cows have 6 legs
velvet ants (actually a wasp) are predators of bumble bees
Despite their popular name, velvet ants are not true ants but in fact belong to a family of parasitic wasps called Mutillidae. Female velvet ants are equipped with a very power stinger and the sting can be extraordinarily painful.
This could be one of several different species of velvet ants. Velvet ants look like ants but are actually part of the hornet family. This could be a Dasymutilla klugi.
They are a type of wingless wasp. The females are wingless anyway. They are in the family Mutillidae, in case you want to look them up. But common names are misleading and often nonsensical. A lot of the questions posted about "red velvet ants" seem to be dealing with real ants, so-called "velvety ants" and that is another matter. But real velvet ants are wasps other than ants (which actually are wasps of sorts as well, but never ind that for now).
Yes, they will slowly savage you to death (:
The males are stingless, the females are wingless.
mostly leaves and grass