LARVA OF THE ANT LION. 367 



These can be very well seen in any of our large beetles, 

 especially the Tiger or the Ground Beetles. In the Ant Lion 

 larva the mandibles are sickle- shaped, and rather deeply grooved 

 on the inner edge. Within this groove the maxillae play, so 

 that when an insect is seized with the mandibles, the maxilla? 

 set to work at extracting its juices. A short time generally 

 suffices to suck an insect as dry as a squeezed orange, and when 

 this is done, the emptied carcase is flung out of the pit by a 

 jerk of the head, and the interior of the pitfall having been 

 cleared of the falling sand in a similar manner, the trap is ready- 

 set for more victims. 



It has been said that if an insect should elude the murderous 

 jaws and try to escape by scrambling up the sides of the pit, 

 the Ant Lion brings it down again by throwing showers of sand 

 on it. This I believe to be somewhat of an exaggeration, as it 

 is not likely that the larva would be able to fling the sand with 

 any definite aim. I am rather inclined to think that as the 

 captive insect, in its attempts to escape, must cause some of the 

 sand to fall into the pit, the Ant Lion instinctively flings it out, 

 so that some of it may accidentally fall on the insect, and in 

 that case would certainly bring it within reach of the jaws. 



Mr. Westwood remarks that the Ant Lion larva is capable of 

 existing without food for a long time, one of his specimens 

 having lived for six months without any nourishment whatever. 

 This is to be expected, as the supply of nourishment must neces- 

 sarily be very precarious ; so that on a fine, still, hot day, for 

 example, a considerable number of insects may fall into the pit, 

 while, during a succession of wet or windy days, not one insect 

 will come out of their hiding-places. 



The following account of a West Indian species of Ant Lion is 

 taken from Mr. Gosse's " Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica : " — 



" One of the old buildings, now fast going to decay, on Blue- 

 fields Estate, was, in the time of sugar cultivation, the mill-house. 

 The wheel was turned by water power — a stream from the upper 

 part of the rivulet having been led through a long aqueduct into 

 the mill, and passing off through a deep and narrow trench to 

 the lower course of the river. Through this winding trench, cut 

 to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, but not more than a yard 

 wide, and now so entirely choked up and overgrown with rank 

 vegetation as to be quite dark, access is with some difficulty 



