Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1899-12-09
THE TRICKY ANT LION.

Ore OF the nest fierce of all the
insect tribe is the ant lion. This
bitter enemy of the ants Ia mon
s:erin form, but is hardly more
than a halt an inch loag. 1t, body
is fiat an ! coy, red with little bunch
{ s of spiny haiis. II has six legs
that look feeble enough, but it has
a head and pair ofjaws that are as
terrible as those Of an alligator.
Unable to move rapidly or to ay,
The ant l.on gains lis food by its
wisdom. 1t makes pitfalls 10 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 place for the pit
fall the. ant lion makes in the san d a
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 shovel it
puts load of sand on its head,
which is square and fiat. Then it
gives its bead jerk which losses
the sand to distance of several in
ches outside the circle. This pro-
cess is done over (the insect always
moving backward) until another fur
row is made. Turning and moving
backward in the other direction the
third furrow is made inside the sec
ond 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 peb-
BILE in the way, it carefully rolls it
on to its back and backs out OF the
pit with it. Failing 10 this, it digs
a 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, buryirg all but its terrible
jaws from view.
Pretty soon an ant il search OF
food reaches the pit, looks down,
sees two odd looking prongs in the
bottom an3 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 supped
on tue juices of the ant it losses the
carcass out of the pit, fixes whatever
damages may have done in the cap
ture 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
a cocoon of sand, fastened together
and lined with silk OF fine texture
and color. On the outside this CO.
coon looks like little ball Of sand
about half an inch through. At the
end of two months the cocoon is
torn open and large ana beautiful
fly looking like dragon fly, crawls
out and unfolds its damp wings.
Thus the fierce creature of the pit
fall becomes a beautiful 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.-Phila-
delDhia Inquirer,