I found a red ant the size of a carpenter ant. Red with a black stripe in Virginia. What could it be?

I found this insect that appeared to be an ant. It was about the size of a Carpenter ant with two exceptions. It was red with a black stripe on it's abdomen. It Appeared to be trying to burrow into the ground. I wanted to catch it and photograph it but could not at the time. I live in Virginia if that helps at all.

i saw one of these today in georgia, i did some searching and its apparently not an ant but a female wasp. the females don't have wings while the males do. found this out at this web site

http://bugguide.net/node/view/28212

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