INTELLIGENCE OF LAEViE— ANT-LION. 235 



embryo should stand on a higher level of psychological 

 development than the adult. 



I may most fitly begin under this heading with the 

 remarkable instincts of the so-called ' ant-lion,' which is 

 the larva of a neuropterous insect, the common Myrmeleon 

 {M, formicarium). I quote the following account of its 

 habits from Thompson's ' Passions of Animals ' (p. 258) : — 



The devices of the ant-lion are still more extraordinary if 

 possible. He forms, with astonishing labom? and perseverance, 

 a pit in the shape of a funnel, in a dry sandy soil, under some 

 old wall or other spot protected from the wind. His pit being 

 finished, he buries himself among the sand at the bottom, leaving 

 only his horns visible, and thus waits patiently for his prey. 

 When an ant or any other small insect happens to walk on the edge 

 of the hollow, it forces down some of the particles of sand, 

 which gives the ant-lion notice of its presence. He immediately 

 throws up the sand which covers his head to overwhelm the 

 ant, and with its returning force brings it to the bottom. This 

 he continues to do till the insect is overcome and falls between 

 his horns. Every endeavour to escape, when once the iacau- 

 tious ant has stepped within the verge of the pit, is vain, for in 

 all its attempts to climb the side the deceptive sand slips from 

 under its feet, and every struggle precipitates it still lower. 

 When withiQ reach its enemy plunges the points of its jaws 

 into its body, and having sucked out all its juices, throws out 

 the empty skin to some distance. 



According to Bingley, if the ant-lion, while excavating 

 its pitfall, — 



Comes to a stone of some moderate size, it does not desert the 

 work on this account, but goes on, intending to remove that im- 

 pediment the last. When the pit is finished, it crawls back- 

 ward up the side of the place where the stone is ; and, getting 

 its tail under it, takes great pains and time to get it on a true 

 poise, and then begins to crawl backward with it up the edge 

 to the top of the pit, to get it out of the way. It is a common 

 thing to see an ant-lion labouring in this manner at a stone 

 four times as big as its own body ; and as it can only move 

 backwards, and the poise is difficult to keep, especially up a 

 slope of such crumbling matter as sand, which moulders away 

 from under its feet, and necessarily alters the position of its 

 body, the stone very frequently rolls down, when near the verge, 

 quite to the bottom. In this case the animal attacks it again 



