214 INSECT ARCHITECTURE, 



ant-lion below to be on the alert. In order to secure 

 the prey, Reaumur, Bonnet, and others have observed 

 the ingenious insect throw up showers of sand by 

 jerking it from his head in quick succession, till the 

 luckless ant is precipitated within reach of the jaws 

 of its concealed enemy. It feeds only on the blood 

 or juice of insects; and as soon as it has extracted 

 these, it tosses the dry carcase out of its den. Its 

 next care is to mount the sides of the pitfall and re- 

 pair any damage it may have suffered; and when this 

 is accomplished, it again buries itself among the sand 

 at the bottom, leavmg nothing but its jaws above the 

 surface, ready to seize the next victim. 



When it is about to change into a pupa, it pro- 

 ceeds in nearly the same manner as the caterpillar of 

 the water-betony moth {Cucullia scrophularioi) . It 

 first builds a case of sand, the particles of which 

 are secured by threads of silk, and then tapestries the 

 whole with a silken web. Vv^ithin this it undergoes 

 its transformation into a pupa^ and in due time, it 

 emerges in form of a four-winged fly, closely resem- 

 bling the dragon-flies {Lib ell idee,), vulgarly and erro- 

 neously called horse stingers. 



The instance of the ant-lion naturally leads us to 

 consider the design of the Author of Nature in so 

 nicely adjusting, in all animals, the means of de- 

 struction and of escape.' As the larger quadrupeds 

 of prey are provided with a most ingenious machi- 

 nery for preying on the weaker, so are these furnished 

 •vvith the most admirable powers of evading their 

 destroyers. In the economy of msects, we constantly 

 observe, that the means of defence, not only of the 

 individual creatures, but of their larvfc and pupae, 

 against the attacks of other insects, and of birds, is 

 proportioned, in the ingenuity of their arrangements, 

 to the weakness of the insect employing them. Those 

 species which multiply the quickest ha^e the greatest 



