366 INSECTS ABROAD. 



Were the creature a vegetable feeder, such an inability to 

 move would not interfere with its capability of obtaining 

 nourishment, for many well-known larvae, especially the mud- 

 feeders, have no locomotive power, nor do they require it, their 

 food being at their mouths. The Ant Lion larva, however, is 

 carnivorous and predacious, feeding entirely upon living insects, 

 and unless we knew its habits, we should not be able to under- 

 stand how it could obtain its food. Its mode of life, however, 

 has been so completely investigated by M. Reaumur and other 

 observers, that its peculiar structure is seen to be exactly 

 what is required for the capture of living and active insects. 

 In fact, Reaumur has done for the Ant Lion larva exactly 

 what Waterton did for the sloth, and has shoM'n that so far from 

 being a bungled performance of Nature, as some foolish persons 

 designated it, the whole of its structure is admirably adapted 

 to its peculiar position in the world. 



Being, as has been said, incapable of movement, except back- 

 wards, and then very slowly, it is evident that the creature 

 cannot catch its prey by running after it, but must wait for 

 insects to come within its reach. Now, there are few square 

 inches of ground over which many insects do not run in the 

 course of the day, so that the problem is not the bringing of the 

 insects to the vicinity of the Ant Lion, but of rendering them 

 incapable of escaping from it. This problem is solved in the 

 following manner : — 



Choosing some portion of ground that is covered with fine 

 dry sand, the Ant Lion begins to push itself backwards in a 

 circular direction, so as to make a shallow furrow. By means 

 of making a succession of these furrows, or rather by excavating 

 one spiral furrow, and throwing out the sand with its broad 

 head, the larva makes a conical pit of no great depth, but with 

 very loose sides. When this pit is finished, the Ant Lion buries 

 itself in the sand at the bottom, leaving nothing but its enormous 

 jaws exposed. Should a luckless insect approach the edge of 

 the pit, the loose sand gives way, and down goes the insect 

 with a small avalanche of sand, into the very jaws of the 

 expectant Ant Lion. 



The jaws are very curiously constructed. The reader is 

 probably aware that in insects there are two sets of jaws, the 

 outer being called "mandibles," and the inner "maxilla?." 



