ANT-LIONS. 



107 



beneath its feet, it is precipitated to the bottom, and falls at once into the power 

 of its destroyer. The ant-lion, or, as Bonnet calls him, on account of his 



FIG. 97. CIRCULAR DITCH OF ANT-LION. 



cunning, the " ant-fox," has no mouth, but instead, two horny fangs, resem- 

 bling jaws, which are toothed upon the inner margin, and terminate in sharp 

 points. These jaw-like appendages are hollow, and serve not only for seizing, 

 but for sucking the juices of any insect that may come within reach. 



The Lace- winged Flies (He tne robins} * are not very dissimilar from the 



ant-lions, although they dig no pitfalls. 

 These insects, frequently seen in our 

 gardens, with their bright green bodies, 

 golden eyes, and iridescent wings, are in 

 their perfect state most elegant creatures. 

 The female lays her eggs upon the leaves 

 of plants, to which they are attached in 

 a very curious manner. The insect first 

 fixes to the leaf a small quantity of a 

 tenacious gum-like fluid, sufficiently 

 viscid to be drawn out into a long thread- 

 like filament, upon the farthest end of 



FIG. 98. LACE-WINGED FLY. MANNER OF 

 DEPOSITING EGGS. 



FIG. 99. APHIS-LION. 



which the egg is attached, so that when the filaments are hardened by exposure 

 to the air, each egg is suspended at the extremity of a slender footstalk. The 

 larvse hatched from these eggs have been named "Aphis-lions," for no sooner 

 do they get on to the plants, than they attack the Aphides with insatiable 

 voracity, and are thus of incalculable benefit to the gardener. Some of them 



emera, day ; fiiou, bioo, to 



