NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



not a volley. Instead of bringing down its prey by 

 well-aimed shots of sand, as commonly believed, it cuts 

 the ground from beneath its feet, and thus brings it 

 within reach, a victim of the law of gravitation as di- 

 rected by a skilful antagonist. 



The use of the larva's long, curved, and toothed man- 

 dibles appeared in the act of seizure. The ants were 

 held off at " arm's-length," so to speak, and were thrash- 

 ed and jerked about until they were exhausted. Mean- 

 while efforts at defence were made futile by the captor, 

 who held its victim out of reach of any vital part. A 

 plucky little pavement ant (Tetamorium coespitum) fell 

 into the larval jaws. She has a sharp sting, and eagerly 

 tried to use it, but was kept at such a distance that her 

 poisoned lance wasted its force against the horny hooks 

 that held her aloof. So also the formidable pincer 

 mandibles of the Pennsylvania carpenter ant, by which 

 she carves out her vast galleries, halls, and rooms in 

 trees, and beheads her victim with the ease of a guillo- 

 tine, were made useless. 



This mode of disarming its victims was made more 

 effective by the ant-lion's position just beneath the 

 sand. A worker-minor of the carpenter ant that fell 

 into the pit, was seized by a hind leg. She bowed her 

 body to snap at her captor's head; but her jaws only 

 grasped the gritty pellets that covered the ant-lion, and 

 out of which its long hooks alone projected. When the 

 juices of a captured insect have been sucked from its 

 body, the dry shell is flung, or "butted," from the pit, 

 and the larva resumes its watch. 



One point in the behavior of this group of ant-lions 

 especially interested me. In the early part of last 

 century a French observer told a remarkable story of 



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