The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-09-15
fHs Tricky ANT uoN.
One Of the Most Fiefee Of All the IN
sect T'fi6e.

One of the most fierce Of all the insect
tribe is the ant lion. This bitter enemy
of the ants is a monster in form, but 10
hardly more than half an inch long. Its
body ID fat and covered with little bunch
es Of spiny hairs. 1t has six legs that
look feeble enough, but it has head and
pair Of jaws that are as terrible as those
Of an alligator.
Unable to move rapidly or to fly, the
ant lion gains its food by its wisdom. 1t
makes pitfalls in the sand, down which
the ants slide to certain death. For the
purpose of digging this trap it hunts
spot Of loose and dry sand under the shell
ter of ledge or old wall or at the foot
of tree. In such places ants are sure
to be running about.
Having found a place for the pitfall
the ant lion makes in the sand little
round ditch about two inches across.
Placing itself on the inside of this circle
1t thrusts the hind part of its body under
the sand Using one of its fore legs as
a shovel it puts a load Of sand on its
head, which is square and fat. Then 1t
gives its head jerk which losses the
sand to distance of several inches out
side the circle. This process is done over
(the insect always moving backward)
until another furrOw is made. Turning
and moving backward in the other direc-
ton the third furrow is made inside the
second circle. This is done over until the
ant lion reaches the center of the funnel
like pit thus formed. In shoveling out
the sand the insect always digs at the
inner side of the circle and makes the
hole always deeper. If the ant lion finds
a pebble in the way, it carefully rolls it
on to its back and backs out of the pit
with it. Failing in this, it digs hole
and buries the troublesome stone. When
the pit is done, it is about two inches
deep in the center, at which spot the ant
lion takes its place, burying all but its
terrible jaws from view.
Pretty soon an ant in search Of food
reaches the pit, looks down, sees two
odd looking prongs in the bottom and
starts to find out what they are. Then
the sand begins to give way and the
scared ant tries to crawl out. If it
seems about to do this, the ant lion loads
its head with sand and snaps the sand
at the ant. This Is done so quickly
that the poor ant is struck by shower
after shower Of sand and knocked back
into the pit After the ant lion has sup
ped on tine juices of the ant it losses
the carcass out of the pit, fixes what
ever damages may have been done in the
capture and awaits another ant. The
ant lion will not take a dead insect. 1t
wants to do its own killing.
After two years of this tricky life this
ogre Of the pit makes for itself cocoon
Of sand, fastened together and lined
with silk Of fne texture and color. On
the outside this cocoon looks like little
ball Of sand about half m inch through
At the end Of two months the cocoon is
torn open and large and beautiful fly
looking like dragon fly, crawls out and
unfolds its damp wings. Thus the fierce
creature Of the pitfall becomes beauti-
full dandy of the insect world, which fits
in the sunshine few days and dies, after
having laid some eggs that will hatch out
more ant lions.-Phiadelphia Inquirer.
Educate Your Bowels Win Cascarets.
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