THE ANT-LION. 707 
' with it. The ant-lion seized it with his long jaws and held it 
up above his head until he had sucked all he wanted from it, 
when he threw the remainder out of the hole and repaired 
the trap. Fig. 162 (from Westwood), shows the structure of 
the jaws, and how the ant-lion may drink the juices from an 
insect without bringing it to his mouth. On the under side 
of each jaw (a), is a groove (b), extending from one end to 
the othér, and partly filled by the slender maxilla which lies 
in it, forming a tube, one end of which passes into the insect 
which is bitten, while the other opens near the mouth of the 
ant-lion. After eating he became more timid, and some- 
times would not take a second insect. If, however, several 
were put into the pit at once, he would bite one after the 
other until all were killed, before deciding on which to 
begin. I fed him two or three times a week, usually with 
house-flies, cutting their wings off and letting him take them 
in his own way. In October, having occasion to travel 
some distance, I put him in an ounce bottle half filled with 
sand, corked him up, and carried him with me in my bag. 
In about a week I gave him a large house-fly, which he did 
not catch, not having room enough in the bottle to make a 
pitfall. I gave him no more food till the next March. 
Meanwhile he remained for several months on a shelf in my 
room. * Occasionally I tipped him out and always found him 
lively enough to right himself if turned on his back, and to 
retreat under the nearest sand. In January he was packed 
up in my trunk for more than a week, and when I opened it, 
after it had remained several days in a warm room, I found 
him as lively as when first caught. He afterwards became 
quite torpid again in a cold *elospt, where he remained 
through the rest of the winter. About the first of March, 
when flies began to be plenty, I-commenced to feed him 
again. He found it rather awkward to catch insects in 
the bottle as there was not room enough to make a pitfall, 
and his inability to move forward made it hard for him to 
seize an insect unless he met it directly between his jaws. 
