Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1899-09-26
Inc TRlc kY ANT /, LION. n
One OF tho Most Fierce OF All the IN.
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5"%E sect Tribe. u .8 .Sg ".
One Of the most fierce II al the insect
tribe is the ant lion. This bitter enemy
Of the ants is monster In form, but ID
hardly more than half nm inch long. Its
body is fiat and covered with little bunch
es Of spiny hairs. II HIS six legs that
look feeble enough, but liz has q head and
pair Of jaws that are as terrible as those
Of an alligator. I. N
Unable to move rapidly or to Az, the
ant lion gains Its food BY it's wisdom. It
makes pitfalls In the sand, down which
the ants slide to certain death. For the
purpose Of digging this trap it hunts q
spot Of loose and dry sand under the shell.
ter Of a ledge or old wall or at the foot
Of tree. In such places ants are sure
to be running about. u
Il Having found a place for the pitfail
the ant lion makes in the sand little
round ditch about two inches across.
Placing itself on the inside of this circle
It thrusts the hind part Of its body under
the sand. Using one Of Its fore legs as
a shovel it puts load Of sand on Its
head. which is square and fat. Then It
gives it's head jerk which losses the
sand to a distance Of several inches out
side the circle. This process is done over
1.-THE insect always moving backward;
until another furrow is made. Turning
and moving ackward 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. II the ant lion finds
a pebble in the way, it carefully rolls 1t
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 the juices Of the ant It tosses
the carcass out Of the pit, fixes what
ever damages may have been done in the
capture and awaits another, ant. The
ant lion win pot take Z dead insect. 1t
wants to do its own killing.
After two 1ears Of this tricky life this
ogre Of the pit makes for itself cocoon
Of sand, fastened together and lined
with silk Of Ane texture and color. On
the outside this cocoon looks like little
ball Of sand about half an 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 it's damp wings. Thus the fierce
creature Of the pitfall becomes q 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.-Philadelphia Inquirer.