But because sand can scratch up the waxy coating, many burrowing scrub arthropods are also hairy. The hairs protect the wax by holding sand up off the surfaces of their bodies. The scrub is full of predators. A burrow is one of the best ways to protect yourself from red-tailed hawks, bobcats, or raccoons if you happen to be an eastern indigo snake, a Florida mouse, or a camel cricket. Because there's food down there.
Many predators are well equipped to hunt beneath the surface of the sand.
Moles and shrews tunnel for grubs, caterpillars, and other insect larvae that graze on the fine hair-like roots of some scrub plants. Sand skinks live in the sand and search for termites that munch on buried leaves and twigs. Scrub pygmy mole crickets prefer to eat microscopic algae that grow between the grains of sand just under the surface in sunny locations. Because it's a good place to raise young. Babies can be easier to protect in an enclosed space underground.