396 Handbook of Nature-Study 



and there follows a fusillade of sand jets, each hitting her from above and 

 knocking her down to the fatal center where the sickle jaws await her 

 and are promptly thrust into her; if she is large and still struggles, the 

 big, unwieldy body of the ogre, buried in the sand, anchors him fast 

 and his peculiar, crooked hind legs push his body backward in this 

 strange tug of war; thus, the ant-ogre is not dragged out of his den 

 by the struggles of the ant, and soon the loss of blood weakens her and 

 she shrivels up. 



The secret of the jets of sand, lies in the flat head of the ogre; if 

 we look at it regarding it as a shovel, we can see that it is well fitted 

 for its purpose; for it is a shovel with a strong mechanism working it. 

 In fact, the whole pit is dug with this shovel head. Wonderful stories 

 are told about the way that ant-lions dig their pits, marking out the outer 

 margin in a circle, and working inward. However, our common ant-lion 

 of the East simply digs down into the sand and flips the sand out until it 

 makes a pit. If an ant-lion can be caught and put in a jar of sand it 

 will soon make its pit, and the process may be noted carefully. 



There is one quality in the ogre which merits praise, and that is his 

 patience. There he lies in his hole for days or perhaps weeks, with noth- 

 ing to eat and no ant coming that way; so when we see an absent-minded 

 ant scrambling over into the pit, let us think of the empty stomach of this 

 patient little engineer which has constructed his pit with such accuracy 

 and so much labor. So precarious is the living picked up by the ant-lions, 

 that it may require one, two or three years to bring one to maturity. 

 At that time it makes a perfectly globular cocoon of silk and sand, the 

 size of a large pea, and within it, changes to a pupa ; and when finally 

 ready to emerge, the pupa pushes itself part way out of the cocoon and the 

 skin is shed and left at the cocoon door. The adult resembles a small 

 dragon-fiy; it has large net -veined wings and is a most graceful insect, as 

 difiierent as can be from the humpbacked ogre which it once was — a 

 transformation quite as marvelous as that which occurred in Beauty and 

 the Beast. Throughout the Middle West, the ant-lion in its pit is called 

 the "doodle-bug." 



Reference — Manual for Study of Insects, Comstock. 



LESSON LXXXVIII 

 The Ant-Lion 



Leading thought — ^The ant-lion, or "doodle-bug" makes a little pit in 

 the sand with very steep sides, and hidden at the bottom of it, waits for 

 ants to tumble in to be seized by its waiting jaws. Later the ant-lion 

 changes to a beautiful insect with gauzy wings, resembling a small dragon- 

 fly. 



Method — The pupils should see the ant-lion pits in their natural situa- 

 tions, but the insects may be studied in the schoolroom. Some of the 

 ant-lions may be dug out of their pits and placed in a dish of sand. They 

 will soon make their pits, and may be watched during this interesting 

 process. It is hardly advisable to try to rear these insects, as they may 

 require two or three years for development. 



Observations — i. Where were the ant-lion pits out of doors? Were 

 they in a windy place? Were they in a place protected from storms? 

 In what kind of soil were they made ? 



