THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 169 



of protecting these useful auxiliaries of agriculture, which 

 every clay annihilate so many of the destructive species, he 

 destroys them without pity. 



Others, not less ardent in the pursuit of prey, but much 

 more ingenious, stretch out nets or construct insidious 

 snares, into which their victims inevitably plunge. 



The life of insects presents some anomalies which are 

 not seen in other animals : totally different habits being 



lOG. The Adult Ant-lion— 31 iirmeleon formicarius. 



met Avith in species almost physically identical. Thus we 

 have seen that the nymph of our magnificent dragon-fly 

 {Lihellula) lives in the mud of the marshes; on the other 

 hand the larva of another kind, which resembles it in 

 every respect, the famous Neuropteron, the ant-lion, so 

 called on account of the frightful carnage it makes among 

 the ants, delights only in the sand and the burning rays of 

 the sun. 



This insidious larva, the most ingenious perhaps that is 

 known, constructs its snare in the driest and finest sand 

 that it can find. It consists of a perfectly regular funnel, 

 hollowed out beneath the level of the soil. The insect 

 only employs its head to clear out the space. Placing 

 itself in the centre of its work, it loads its head Avith par- 



22 



