224 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. Xm» 



uncouth and forbidding- appearance should scare 

 away any prey which might happen to approach its 

 lurking- hole, it conceals its whole body under a layer 

 of sand, except the points of its expanded forceps, 

 whicli stick out above the surface. It seldom hap- 

 pens that much time elapses before some vag-rant 

 ant, unsuspicious of danger, arrives upon the margin 

 of the den. Impelled by some fatal motive, it is 

 prompted to explore the depth below ; and bitterly 

 is it made to rue its prying intrusion. The treacher- • 

 ous sand gives way under its feet ; the struggles 

 which it makes to escape serve but to accelerate its 

 descent ; and it falls headlong into the open forceps 

 of its destroyer. The ant, however, sometimes suc- 

 ceeds in arresting its downward progress half way, 

 when it uses every effort to scramble up the sloping 

 side. Furnished with six eyes on each side of the 

 head, the ant-lion is sufficiently sharp-sighted to 

 perceive this manceuvre. Roused by the prospect 

 of losing the expected delicacy, it instantly throws 

 off its inactivity; shovels loads of sand upon its 

 head, and vigorously throws it after the retreating 

 victim. The blows which the ant thus receives 

 from substances comparatively of great size, soon 

 bring it down within the grasp of the terrible pincers 

 which are extended to receive it. If one shower 

 should fail, another soon follows, and lucky indeed 

 must be the insect which can effect its escape. 



Very few species of insects, not excepting its own, 

 come amiss to this voracious creature. Reaumur 

 cut the wings of a bee, and threw it thus irritated 

 into the den of an ant-lion. The creature, seizing 

 the bee by the back, and holding it suspended in the 

 air, disabled it from using its sting. It made, how- 

 ever, a terrible struggle, but on every motion the 

 ant-lion dashed it forcibly against the sand. Thus 

 beaten and wounded, the bee yielded up the contest 

 with its life, and was sucked at leisure by its enemy. 

 When its prey has been drained dry, it casts thQ 



