232 Insect Architecture. 



the stone, it crawls up the side of the pit with great care, 

 and deposits its burthen on the outside of the circle. Should 

 the stone happen to be round, the balance can be kept only 

 with the greatest difficulty, as it has to travel with its load 

 upon a slope of loose sand, which is ready to give way at 

 every step ; and often when the insect has carried it to the 

 very brink, it rolls off its back and tumbles down to the 

 bottom of the pit. This accident, so far from discouraging 

 the ant-lion, only stimulates it to more persevering efforts. 

 Bonnet observed it renew these attempts to dislodge a stone 

 five or six times. It is only when it finds it utterly im- 

 possible to succeed, that it abandons the design and com- 

 mences another pit in a fresh situation. When it succeeds 

 in getting a stone beyond the line of its circle, it is not con- 

 tented with letting it rest there ; but, to prevent it from again 

 rolling in, it goes on to push it to a considerable distance. 

 We may be pardoned for pausing before we give full credence 

 to these details. 



The ant-lion feeds only on the blood or juice of insects ; 

 and as soon as it has extracted these, it tosses the dry carcase 

 out of its den. 



When it is about to change into a pupa, it proceeds in 

 nearly the same manner as the caterpillar of the water-betony 

 moth (Cucullia scrophularice). It first builds a case of sand, 

 the particles of which are secured by threads of silk, and 

 then tapestries the whole with a silken web. Within this it 

 undergoes its transformation into a pupa, and in due time it 

 emerges in form of a four -winged fly, closely resembling the 

 dragon-flies (Libellidce), vulgarly and erroneously called 



The instance of the ant-lion naturally leads us to consider 

 the design of the Author of Nature in so nicely adjusting, in 

 all animals, the means of destruction and of escape. As the 

 larger quadrupeds of prey are provided with a most ingenious 

 machinery for preying on the weaker, so are those furnished 

 with the most admirable powers of evading their destroyers. 



In the economy of insects, we constantly observe that the 

 means of defence, not only of the individual creatures, but of 



