432 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



with all haste scrambles up again. No sooner does the 

 ant-lion perceive this, (for, being furnished with six 

 eyes on each side of his head, he is sufficiently sharp- 

 sighted,) than, shaking off his inactivity, he hastily 

 shovels loads of sand upon his head, and vigorously 

 throws them up in quick succession upon the esaping in- 

 sect, which, attacked by tuch a heavy shower from be- 

 low, and treading on so unstable a path, is almost in- 

 evitably carried to the bottom. The instant his victim 

 is fairly within reach, the ant-lion seizes him between 

 his jaws, which are admirable instruments, at the same 

 time hooked for holding, and hollow, furnished with a 

 lateral piston, for sucking, and at his leisure extracting 

 all the juices of the body, regales upon formic acid. 

 The dry carcase he subsequently jerks out of his den, 

 that it may not encumber him in his future contests, or 

 betray the "horrid secrets of his prison-house:" and 

 if the sides of the pit have received any damage, he 

 leaves his concealment for awhile to repair it: which 

 having done, he resumes his station. 



In this manner in its larva state this insect lives 

 nearly two years, during all which time it receives no 

 food but what has been caught through the artifice above 

 described. Though all living insects, for I have fed it 

 with flies, are equally acceptable to it, as the winged 

 tribe can easily take flight from its pit should they chance 

 to fall into it, its prey consists chiefly of apterous species, 

 of which ants form by far the largest portion, with occa- 

 sionally an unwary spider or wood-louse. When the 

 full period of its growth is attained it retires under the 

 sand; spins with its anus a silken cocoon; remains a 



