You-ee-up. 93 



a little of thinking been done, or some common sense exer- 

 cised, the solution of the insect's strange actions could have 

 been reached without any great difficulty. 



Let me briefly explain. One cannot talk, as is well known, 

 without some motion being imparted to the outlying air. 

 This moving air impinging upon the loosely arranged sand 

 piled up around the margin of the tiny pitfall, dislodges 

 some particles, and these, falling into the jaws of the hidden 

 Ant-lion, bring him to the surface, for he ascribes the com- 

 motion to some ill-fated ant, or other such insect, that has, 

 in its anxious searching for food, tumbled unconsciously into 

 his artfully-laid trap. In a moment the mistake is discovered, 

 and, with all possible dispatch, he backs himself down into 

 his den to await further developments. His appearance on 

 the occasion is greeted by" you-ee-down, you-ee-down," and 

 as he goes down apparently in obedience to the order, but 

 really because it is a matter of business so to do, it is claimed 

 by the unlearned and unwise that his movements are respon- 

 sive to the command of the person by whom he is addressed. 



Two years of larval life, and the subject of our sketch is 

 lost to the sight of the rural folks. A new life, where feed- 

 ing is no longer necessary, awaits him, but one in which 

 the most radical changes must occur if he is to fulfil the 

 existence which nature designed in her grand scheme of 

 creation. From a silk-gland, which, unlike those of the but- 

 terflies and moths, is situated at the end of the body, he spins 

 a cocoon, but there being so little of silk to spare, he needs 

 must supply the deficiency by the utilization of a quantity of 

 sand, which he glues into the walls of his house. Here he 

 dwells a comparatively inactive pupa for three brief weeks, 

 retaining his large, powerful mandibles to the last, which he 

 uses in cutting his way out of the cocoon, when he is ready 

 to emerge as a winged neuropter. In the adult form he 

 resembles the dragon-flies in flight, flapping wildly and irreg- 

 ularly about, as if his muscles were too weak to wield his 

 great stretch of wings. But in repose his alar appendages 



