186 ORDEK NEUROPTERA. 



■iDJEo the larro) are terrestrial, and the parent insects select for their habitations the places 

 farthest removed from water, the driest sand being the only material suited to their habits 

 and mode of life, or adapted to their essential wants. 



The ant-lion, which is the common name of tlie insect about to be described, is a spider- 

 looking animal, having a thick, short, and ftill abdomen, and narrow and elongated front, 

 which is terminated by two long or exsert mandibles, strongly toothed upon their inside 

 edges, and also perforated, so that the insect may suck the juices from its victims ( See 

 Plate xxxiii, fig. 2 : larva). The mandibles have three teeth each, and a row of stifl' 

 bristles below them, probably used partly for supporting their prey, when engaged in the 

 act of suction. The mandibles are curved, and as sharp as a needle ; and in this respect are 

 well adapted to the office they are designed to fulfil, the piercing or transfixing the ant, 

 which seems to constitute their favorite food. The three teeth are slender, and but slightly 

 thickened at the point of junction with the jaw. The body is clothed with a few bristle- 

 like hairs, but in other respects it may be said to be naked. But what is quite peculiar and 

 interesting in the construction and habits of our species of ant-lion, is the position and 

 structure of its legs : they only permit it to move with its abdomen in front, or, in other 

 words, it is obliged to walk backwards. 



To obtain a supply of food, the larva forms a conical depression in dry sand under a 

 shelving rock, where the surface will remain undisturbed ; the depression being over half 

 an inch in depth. At the bottom, the owner places itself concealed in the sand, with only 

 its mandibles standing a little above the apex of the depression. Now as sheltered places of 

 this kind, which the ant-lion selects, are also excellent highways for all small animals to 

 travel, and especially suited to the habits of the ant, if the ant is not cautious in his pas- 

 sage through these dry and shelving grounds, it will probably fall into some one of these 

 sand-traps : this happening, there is little chanc* of its escaping from the jaws of the lion, 

 which are always open and ready to seize the unfortunate traveller. If, however, the ant 

 does at first escape the clutches of the lion, and attempts to clamber up the side of the 

 pit, it is sure to be overwhelmed with a shower of sand cast up by its cunning foe, and 

 most certainly precipitated again to the bottom. 



Notwitstanding this lion is furnished with strong mandibles, they are not for the purpose 

 of chewing or biting its food, but are so constructed as to hold its prey securely, and to 

 extract its fluids by suction. "When this is finished, the lion tosses the empty skin from its 

 pitfall, by means of its long mandibles and iBe free and extended motion of the head in 

 its thorax. 



Like other larvae, the larva of the ant-lion changes its skin. When about to undergo its 

 transformation, it glues together a portion of sand by mixing it with a kind of mucilagi- 

 nous and fibrous or silky secretion, which it forms into a perfectly round ball having a 

 sufficient consistency to l)ear handling freely. At the time of the final change, which 

 occurs about twenty days after the ball is rolled, the pupa pierces a round hole in the side 



