DISEASES OF THE COTTON PLANT. 
225 
found singly upon the ground in plantations, and some- 
times measure half an inch in length. Their color is a 
vivid, velvety red and black. They are able to inflict pain- 
ful and severe wounds with a long sting with which they 
are provided. There are also three or four species of small 
ants, exceedingly troublesome in some of the Southern 
houses, where they find their way into pantries, closets, 
boxes, or trunks, however closed, and devour any eatable 
article which may fall in their way. The only means of 
pi'eventing the ravages of these insects is to isolate the 
article to be preserved in a vessel of water, or to put all 
four of the legs of the table, on which the articles may be 
placed, into vessels filled with water. 
The smaller ants, however, have a formidable enemy, 
the ant-lion, which, in the larva state, forms a funnel-shaped 
hole in the sand, near the ants' nests, in the bottom of 
which it lies concealed, all except its jaws, and waits with 
patience in this den for any ant that may chance to pass 
along the treacherous path. The ant, suspecting no harm, 
reaches the edge of the pit-fall, and, the loose sand giving 
way, it if5 precipitated to the bottom, where the larva of the 
ant-lion immediately seizes it with its jaws, and, after suck- 
ing out its juice, casts the empty skin away. Should the 
anfortunate ant, however, elude the first assault of the ant- 
lion, and endeavor to escape by climbing up the steep sides 
of the funnel-shaped hole, the ant-lion throws repeated 
showers of sand with such precision upon the unfortunate 
victim that it very seldom fails to overwhelm and bring it 
within reach of its jaws, when it is seized and its juices 
extracted as above described. 
The perfect insect of the ant-lion much resembles the 
dragon-fly in form and general appearance ; it is also 
furnished with four veined wings, by means of which it is 
10* 
