STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



out of the insatiable curiosity which distinguishes ants, cats, 

 monkeys, and children, and partly out of a desire to obtain food. 

 No sooner 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 

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

 bite kills the ant, the juices are extracted, and the empty carcase 

 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 slopes 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 flinging 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 

 happens to fall on the escaping victim, knocks it over, and en- 

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

 open but to reject the dead and withered carcases; sometimes 

 the insect is tired before the Ant-lion, and suffers itself to be 

 captured ; and sometimes, though very rarely, it succeeds in 

 making its escape. In either case, the pitfall is quite out of 

 shape, and instead of re-arranging 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 nothing of the kind, but only tosses the sand out as fast 

 as its head can work, without aiming in any direction, or having 

 any idea except to prevent the pit from being filled up. 



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

 perfect state. When it has passed its full time in the larval 

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

 cocoon of a globular form, and therein remains until it is about 



