September, \8G'>.] 73" 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE HABITS OF THE ANT-LION (MYRMELEON 



FORMIC ARIUSJ. 



BY R. M'LACHLAN, F.L.S. 



Towards the middle of August, 1864, I visited my good friend, 

 Mons. Berce, at Fontaiuebleau, and spent a day with him in the magni- 

 ficent forest which surrounds the town. My primary object was to 

 make personal acquaintance with the ant-lions which are known to 

 abovmd there ; nor was I disappointed, for, at the base of some of the 

 numerous immense blocks of rock with which the forest is strewed, 

 I soon found the objects of my search ; the sand in some places being 

 literally full of their pitfalls, of all sizes, from those constructed by 

 infantile larvae, to the really considerable and funnel-shaped depressions 

 formed by those of full growth. I was not long in discovering that it was 

 impossible to seize the occupants by trying to pick them out of their 

 holes, as they made a wonderfully quick retrograde and lateral move- 

 ment on the approach of danger. The only plan, therefore, was to 

 thrust the hand in an oblique direction under their pits, and they were 

 generally to be found feigning death in the mass of sand brought up. 

 In this way I collected two or three dozen, and placed them in a box 

 with sand, and eventually brought them to London. 



It is not necessary for me to enter into a lengthened description 

 of the manner in which they form tljeir pitfalls, this operation having 

 been long since described by numerous old authors, such as Reaumur, 

 Percheron, Bonnet, &c., and mores recently by Brauer and Westwood, 

 the latter having published (in the Magazine of Natural History for 

 1838) an account of some larvae which he brought from France, from 

 one of which he reared a single imago. 



On arriving home, I found that at least one half of my larva? had 

 been destroyed by their companions, through too many having been con- 

 fined in a small space. However, I still had more than a dozen ; and these 

 were placed in a large box, filled with fine sand to the depth of nearly 

 three inches, with a piece of gauze stretched over the top. In their 

 natural state, their food doubtless consists of ants, small beetles, 

 spiders, and other creatures, either apterous or possessing small powers 

 of flight ; but I fed mine chiefly on house-flies, varied by an occasional 

 bhie-bottle, soft-bodied beetle, &c. It wa^ necessary to partially disable 

 the flies before dropping tbem into the pits, otherwise they would fly 

 out before the creatures had time to seize them. The house-flies and 

 other small insects were usually dragged partially or wholly under the 



