THE XION ANT. 
If the infefl be fmall, and the grains of fand, notwith- 
landing the declivity of the funnel, do not give way 
under its feet, the myrmeleon has another invention by 
which he renders himfelf mafter of his prey : With his 
head, which is flattened, he throws up repeated Ihowers 
of fand from the bottom ot the funnel, which falling 
Upon the fides, force down the int'ed till it comes within 
reach. The fatal inftruments with which this animal 
feizes its prey, are each a fort of mouth or trunk, by 
which it fucks out the whole intrails before it is drawn 
out of the body *. 
When the lion ant has attained its full fixe, it con- 
ftrutSs for itfelf an edifice, the external parts of which 
are psrticles of fand or earth combined together by filken 
threads: the interior cavity is lined with pure lilk, white 
and glofly like fatin. Within this hall the myrmeleon is 
changed into a chryfalis, of a curved or femicircular 
lhape, difplaying all the parts of the perfect infect that is 
foon to iffue from it. 
Atter the chryfalis buvfts, the winged infedt which 
makes its elcape is of a gray colour, with a long flender 
body, refembling the libellula. In this country, the 
myrmeleon is very l'carce ; a few, however, are found to 
breed among the loofe earth at the bottom of walls which 
have a fouth expofure. In that dry, pulverized, ancl 
fandy earth, their eggs are protected from rain, till they 
are hatched by the fun. h allijnieri and P an part firlt 
gave the hiftory of the lion ant •, that of the former is in 
the form ol a dialogue between Mai phi gi and Pliny , in 
which the modern informs the ancient naturalift of the 
lingular manoeuvres and metamerphofis ol thefe animals. 
3 p a Externally, 
* 
* Reaumur, Tome VI. mem. x. 
