I used to be fascinated by ants when I was a kid, Dan, and I found myself in a veritable ant paradise once when my parents rented a cabin in Wisconsin in a place with very sandy soil. It was incredible what a variety of ants could be found around that place. One day I saw a most peculiar looking ant crawling around. It looked like this:
Yup, that's a velvet ant! Its fire engine red color and solitary nature suggested to me that it might be dangerous, so I merely poked it with a twig but did not attempt to handle it. Turns out my instincts were correct! ;-) If I'd known for sure what it was, I probably would have arranged to corral it, drop it on top of a busy anthive, and stir up some trouble. I was known to do stuff like that at that age...