226 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY. 



by Ascdlaphus, the antennae are long, filiform, and suddenly enlarged 

 at the end. 



The Ant-lions, Myrmeleon. This is a large genus ; Hagen, in 

 his Synopsis published in 1861, describes twenty-five American 

 species. The adult insects are graceful creatures, with long, narrow, 

 delicate wings and slender bodies. The larvae have broad and 

 somewhat depressed bodies which taper towards each end. The 

 form of the mouth-parts has been described in the generalizations 

 regarding the Hemerobiadae. The interesting habits of these larvae 

 have attracted much attention since the earliest times. They live in 

 sandy places, where they dig pitfalls for trapping their prey. In 

 making these pitfalls the sand is thrown out by an upward jerk of 

 the head, this part of the body serving as a shovel. The pits differ 

 greatly in depth, according to the nature of the soil in which they 

 are made. Their sides are as steep as the sand will lie. When an 

 ant, or other wingless insect, steps upon the brink of one of these 

 pits, the sand crumbles beneath its feet, and it is precipitated into 

 the jaws of the ant-lion, which is buried in the sand, with its jaws at 



FIG. 193. Myrmeleon. 



the bottom of the pit. In case the ant does not fall to the bottom 

 of the pit, the ant-lion undermines it by throwing out some sand 

 from beneath it. I have even seen an ant-lion throw the sand in 

 such a way that in falling it would hit the ant and tend to knock it 

 down the side of the pit. These larvae can be easily kept in a dish 

 of sand, and their habits watched. The pupa state is passed in a 

 spherical cocoon, made of sand fastened together with silk, and 

 neatly lined with the same material. This silk is spun from a spin- 

 neret, placed at the caudal end of the body, the caudal part of the 

 alimentary canal being transformed into a silk gland. The food of 



