15 



THE ANT-LION. 



The Ant-Lion is an insect of wonderful pro- 

 perties; it is hatched from an egg laid in soft 

 moving ground, or sand : the insect increases 

 soon in size, and assumes the shape of a small 

 spider, with this difference, that his legs are 

 constructed in such a way that he proceeds 

 backwards ; he has six feet, and the belly is in 

 the shape of a heart, armed with small tubercles 

 and bristles. The corselet to which the legs are 

 attached is small, and the head is armed with 

 two horns, not unlike those of the stag-beetle, 

 and two very sharp eyes. What must create 

 our greatest admiration is, Vhat this insect, which 

 cannot move but in a retrograde direction, is 

 doomed by nature to feed upon flies and ants, 

 whose quickness and agility would at all times 

 deprive him of his prey, but that he has been en- 

 dowed with an uncommon instinct, attended 

 with stratagem : he makes a kind of funnel-like 

 hole in a soft ground or sand, and placing him- 

 self at the bottom of it, waits there with the 

 utmost patience, for several days, till an incau- 

 tious ant, or giddy fly, falls in the dreadful pit. 

 Then all his skill is put in requisition; he throws 

 out, by the shaking of his horns, a great quan- 



