770 



A HISTORY OF 



then patiently sets about mending the breaches 

 which its fortifications had received in the last 

 engagement. Nothing can abate its industry, 

 its vigilance, its patience, or its rapacity. It 

 will work for a week together to make its pit- 

 fall ; it will continue upon the watch for more 

 than a month, patiently expecting the ap- 

 proach of its prey ; and if it comes in greater 

 quantities than is needful, yet still the little 

 voracious creature will quit the insect it has 

 newly killed, and leave it half eaten, to kill 

 and attack any other that happens to fall 

 within the sphere of its malignity : though so 

 voracious, it is surprisingly patient of hunger ; 

 some of them having been kept in a box with 

 sand, for six months and upwards, without 

 feeding at all. 



When the lion-ant attains a certain age, in 

 which it is to change into another form, it 

 then leaves off its usual rapacious habits, but 

 keeps on its industry. It no longer continues 

 to make pits, but furrows up the sand all 

 round in an irregular nanner; testifying those 

 workings and violent agitations which most 

 insects exhibit previous to their transformation. 

 These animals are produced in autumn, and 

 generally live a year, and perhaps two, before 

 they assume a winged form. Certain it is, 

 that they are found at the end of winter of all 

 sizes ; and it would seem that many of the 

 smaller kinds had not yet attained sufficient 

 maturity for transformation. Be this as it 

 may, when the time of change approaches, if 

 the insect finds its little cell convenient, it 

 seeks no other ; if it is obliged to remove, 

 after furrowing up the sand, it hides itself un- 

 der it, horns and all. It there spins a thread, 

 in the manner of the spider ; which being 

 made of a glutinous substance, and being 

 humid from the moisture of its body, sticks to 

 the little particles of sand among which it is 

 spun ; and in proportion as it is thus excluded, 

 the insect rolls up its web, sand and all, into a 

 ball, of which itself is the centre. This ball 

 is about half an inch in diameter ; and within 



it the insect resides, in an apartment sufficient- 

 ly spacious for all its motions. The out.side 

 is composed of sand and silk; the inside is 

 lined with silk only, of a fine pearl-colour, ex- 

 tremely delicate, and perfectly beautiful. But 

 though the work is so curious within, it ex- 

 hibits nothing to external appearance but a 

 lump of sand ; and thus escapes the search of 

 birds, that might otherwise disturb the inhabi- 

 tant within. 



The insect continues thus shut up for six 

 weeks or two months ; and gradually parts 

 with its eyes, its feelers, its feet, and its skin ; 

 all which are thrust into a corner of the inner 

 apartment, like a rag. The insect then ap- 

 pears almost in its winged state, except that 

 there is a thin skin which wraps up the wings, 

 and that appears to be nothing else but a 

 liquor dried on their outside. Still, however, 

 the little animal is too delicate and tender to 

 venture from its retreat; but continues en- 

 closed for some time longer : at length, when 

 the members of this new insect have acquired 

 the necessary consistence and vigour, it tears 

 open its lodging, and breaks through its wall. 

 For this purpose it has two teeth, like those of 

 grasshoppers, with which it eats through, and 

 enlarges the opening, till it gets out. Its body, 

 which is turned like a screw, takes up no 

 more than the space of a quarter of an inch ; 

 but when it is unfolded, it becomes half an 

 inch in length ; while its wings, that seemed 

 to occupy the smallest space, in two minutes' 

 time unfold, and become longer than the body. 

 In short, it becomes a large and beautiful fly, 

 of the libellula kind, with a long slender body, 

 of a brown colour ; a small head, with large 

 bright eyt'S, long slender legs, and four large 

 transparent reticulated wings. The rest of its 

 habits resemble that insect whose form it 

 bears ; except, that instead of dropping its eggs 

 in the water, it deposites them in sand, where 

 they are soon hatched into that rapacious in- 

 sect so justly admired for its method of catch- 

 ing its prey. 



