,IOO 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
out of the insatiable curiosity which distinguishes ants, cats, ( 
monkeys, and children, and partly out of a desire to obtain food. 
No sooner has the ant approached the margin of the pitfall, than 
the treacherous soil gives way, the poor insect goes tumbling 
and rolling down the yielding sides of the pit, and falls into the 
extended jaws that are waiting for it at the bottom. A smart 
bite kills the ant, the juices are extracted, and the empty carcase 
is jerked out of the pit, and the Ant-lion settles itself in readiness 
for another victim. j 
Sometimes, when a more powerful insect, such as a large : 
wood-ant, or beetle, or perhaps a hunting spider, happens to fall 
into the pit, the Ant-lion does not obtain a meal on such easy 1 
terms. The victim has no idea of surrendering at discretion, ij 
but tries to scramble up the sides of the pit, and in its furious 
exertions, it brings down the sand in torrents, filling up the pit, 
making the slopes of the sides shallower, and so rendering its ( 
escape easy. Then there is a battle between the Ant-lion and 
its intended prey, the one bringing the sand into the pit and 
the other flinging it out again so as to restore the steepness of 
the sides, and to deepen the pit. 
Sometimes a quantity of the sand flung by the Ant-lion 
happens to fall on the escaping victim, knocks it over, and en- 
ables the devourer to grasp it in the terrible jaws, which never 
open but to reject the dead and withered carcases; sometimes 
the insect is tired before the Ant-lion, and suffers itself to be 
captured; and sometimes, though very rarely, it succeeds in 
making its escape. In either case, the pitfall is quite out of 
shape, and instead of re-arranging it, the Ant-lion deserts it and 
makes another. Some writers have said that the Ant-lion flings 
the sand at its escaping prey with deliberate aim and intention. 
It does nothing of the kind, but only tosses the sand out as fast 
as its head can work, without aiming in any direction, or having 
any idea except to prevent the pit from being filled up. 
Its earth-burrowing life does not cease until it assumes the 
perfect state. When it has passed its full time in the larval 
condition, and is about to change into a pupa, it spins a silken 
cocoon of a globular form, and therein remains until it is about 
