Under A Big Big Sky

Petrified Forest National Park.Amid the lithified remains of an ancient forest, where the pebbles themselves were essentially petrified mulch, a moving white fluff on the ground was identified as a Thistledown Velvet Ant (Dasymutilla gloriosa), which is actually a wasp. The female is wingless and furry white, like the seedpod of a creosote bush or a cottonwood. She runs around looking for sand wasp nests to parasitize.