492 THE MAY-FLY. 



illustration, their perfect form is very light and elegant, and closely resembling that of 

 the dragon-flies, save that the wings are lighter, softer, and broader. In their larval 

 condition, however, they are by no means attractive-looking creatures, somewhat 

 resembling flattened maggots with rather long legs and very large jaws, the legs being 

 apparently useless as organs of progression, all movements being made by means of 

 the abdomen. Slow of movement as is this creature, and yet predaceous, feeding 

 wholly on living insects, the mode of obtaining its food seems to be rather a problem. 

 The solution, however, is simple enough, the creature digging a pitfall, and lying 

 ensconced therein while the expected prey approaches. 



Mr. Westwood, who kept several of these insects in a living state, has given the 

 following description of them : " It is in very fine sand that the larva makes its pit- 

 fall. When placed upon the surface, it bends down the extremity of the body, and 

 then pushing or rather dragging itself backwards by the assistance of its hind legs, 

 but more particularly of the deflexed extremity of its body, it gradually insinuates 

 itself into and beneath the sand, constantly throwing off the particles which fall upon, 

 or which it shovels with its jaws or legs upon its head, by suddenly jerking them back- 

 wards. 



' Ossaque post tergum magnae jactata parentis.' 



Proceeding in this manner, in a spiral direction, it gradually diminishes the diameter 

 of its path, and by degrees throws so much of the sand away as to form a conical pit, 

 at the bottom of which it then conceals itself, its mandibles widely extended, being the 

 only parts that appear above the surface ; with these, any luckless insect that may 

 happen to fall down the hole is immediately seized and killed. 



When the fluids of the victim are exhausted, the Ant-Lion, by a sudden jerk, throws 

 the dry carcass out of the hole. Should, however, the insect by chance escape the 

 murderous jaws of its enemy, the latter immediately commences throwing up the sand, 

 whereby not only is the hole made deeper and its sides steeper, but the escaping 

 insect is probably hit, and again brought down to the bottom of the pit. It is chiefly 

 upon ants and other soft-bodied insects that these larvae feed. They are, however, 

 capable of undergoing long fasts, for one of my larvae remained from October till March 

 without food. 



Previous to assuming the pupa state, the larva forms a globular cocoon of less than 

 half an inch in diameter, of fine sand, glued with silken threads spun from a slender, 

 telescopic-like spinneret, placed at the extremity of the body, and is lined with fine 

 silk. The pupa is small, not being half an inch long, inactive, and with all the limbs 

 laid upon the breast. When ready to assume the perfect state, it uses its mandibles, 

 which are quite unlike those of the larva and imago (/. e. the perfect form), to gnaw a 

 hole through the cocoon, and pushes itself partly through the aperture, in which it 

 leaves its pupa skin. Immediately on assuming the perfect state, the abdomen is 

 almost immediately extended to nearly three times its previous length." 



In order to enable the Ant-Lion to extract the juices of the insects on which it feeds, 

 the inner curve on each mandible is deeply grooved, and another portion of the jaws, 

 technically called the maxilla, plays within the groove. The larva, half-sunk in its pit- 

 fall, is shown in the left-hand lower corner of the illustration. 



THE beautiful NEMOPTERA COA belongs to an allied family of this order, and is here 

 given in order to show the curious development of the hinder pair of wings, a pecuU 

 iarity which is repeated, though not on so extensive a scale, in many of the butterflies. 



IN the centre of the same engraving may be seen a flying insect, which will at once 

 be recognized as the MAY-FLY or EPHEMERA, the best and most familiar type of the 

 family to which it belongs, and which is scientifically called the Ephemeridae. 



This insect has long been celebrated for its short space of life, a single day some- 

 times witnessing its entrance into the perfect state and its final departure from the 

 world. The popular idea concerning these insects is, that the whole of their life is re- 

 stricted to a single day. This, however, is an error, as they have already passed at least 



