184 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Should an insect, an ant, for example, happen to pass near the 

 pitfall, it will be sure to go and look into the cavity, partly out of 

 the insatiable curiosity which distinguishes ants, cats, monkeys, 

 and children, and partly out of a desire to obtain food. No soon- 

 er has the ant approached the margin of the pitfall, than the 

 treacherous soil gives way, the poor insect goes tumbling and 

 rolling down the yielding sides of the pit, and falls into the ex- 

 tended jaws that are waiting for it at the bottom. A smart bite 

 kills the ant, the juices are extracted, and the empty carcass is 

 jerked out of the pit, and the Ant-lion settles itself in readiness 

 for another victim. 



Sometimes, when a more powerful insect, such as a large wood- 

 ant, or beetle, or perhaps a hunting spider, happens to fall into 

 the pit, the Ant-lion does not obtain a meal on such easy terms. 

 The victim has no idea of surrendering at discretion, but tries to 

 scramble up the sides of the pit, and in its furious exertions, it 

 brings down the sand in torrents, filling up the pit, making the 

 slope of the sides shallower, and so rendering its escape easy. 

 Then there is a battle between the Ant-lion and its intended 

 prey, the one bringing the sand into the pit and the other fling- 

 ing it out again so as to restore the steepness of the sides, and to 

 deepen the pit. 



Sometimes a quantity of the sand flung by the Ant-lion hap- 

 pens to fall on the escaping victim, knocks it over, and enables 

 the devourer to grasp it in the terrible jaws, which never open 

 but to reject the dead and withered carcasses; sometimes the in- 

 sect is tired before the Ant-lion, and suffers itself to be captured ; 

 and sometimes, though very rarely, it succeeds in making its es- 

 cape. In either case, the pitfall is quite out of shape, and instead 

 of rearranging it, the Ant-lion deserts it and makes another. 

 Some writers have said that the Ant-lion flings the sand at its 

 escaping prey with deliberate aim and intention. It does noth- 

 ing of the kind, but only tosses the sand out as fast as its head 

 can work, without aiming in any direction, or having an idea ex- 

 cept to prevent the pit from being filled up. 



Its earth-burrowing life does not cease until it assumes the per- 

 fect state. "When it has passed its full time in the larval condi- 

 tion, and is about to change into a pupa, it spins a silken cocoon 

 of a globular form, and therein remains until it is about to as- 

 sume its perfect condition. The pupa then bites a hole through 

 the side of the cocoon, and projects its body half out of the aper- 



