I saw this while I was picking food for my caterpillars and just wondered what it was since I couldn't recall seeing anything like it before. Sorry the pictures are blurry; the thing wouldn't stop moving!

It looks like a Velvet Ant, it's actually a type of wasp. A predator.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/...

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

I thought it looked like a velvet ant with no hair but then realized it's all wet hence the appearance of no hair. We've had a boatload of rain this month!

I hadn't even thought about it looking different because it was so wet! I thought it looked like an ant, but I was pretty sure it wasn't, so this actually makes a lot of sense. I really only worry about bugs that might harm my caterpillars and since this is the only one I've ever seen like this, I'm not going to worry about it. Cool to learn something new, though!

They really are beautiful creatures aren't they? I only see them once in a while. Yep, they are the devil to take a photo of -- even worse than butterflies -- they move so fast! and erratically. You can get dizzy trying to get a good shot of one.