CH. XIII.] THE ANT-LION. 225 



skin with a jerk far from its cave, lest the relics 

 should embarrass it in its future contests, or deprive 

 it of future visits, by bringing its place of residence 

 into bad repute. Any damage which the den may 

 have sustained during these struggles is carefully 

 repaired ; when the ant-lion resumes its station at 

 the bottom? and patiently awaits the approach of 

 more prey. 



The ant-lion will not take a dead insect, however 

 recently killed. Reaumur tempted it with fine, fat 

 blue-bottles, but these it would not touch. Those 

 insects, too, whose instincts teach them to simulate 

 death when danger is near, escape the fangs of the 

 ant-lion. 



If it has long missed its necessary supply of 

 game, it concludes its place of ambuscade to have 

 been badly selected, and moves to another spot ; or, 

 if the hole has been so long occupied that the fre- 

 quent crumbling of the sides has rendered the de- 

 scent too easy, it is forsaken. Its progress on these 

 occasions may be seen in the following figure. 



To this species of life the ant-lion is destined for 

 about two years ; after this period it passes from its 

 state of larva into that of nymph. It then buries 

 itself entirely in the sand. With a kind of viscid 

 substance, which appears to exude from the pores 

 of its skin, it glues together a crust which encom- 

 passes its whole body ; this covering is round, and 

 about half an inch in diameter, which affords the 



