Packard.] 
INSECTS AS ARCHITECTS. 
303 
six hundred individuals, each lying at the bottom of its hole. 
Mr. Emerton has described, in the “American Naturalist” 
(iv, p. 705), the habits of our Myrmeleo immaculatus (Fig. 
233, with the larva seen from beneath, and the pupa). It 
digs a pit in the sand an inch deep and* two inches in diam¬ 
eter. Mr. Emerton thinks the ant lion begins its hole by 
making a circle and afterwards throwing out the sand from 
the centre. “In digging he used his flat head and jaws, 
which were pushed under several grains of sand and then 
jerked upwards, throwing their load sometimes as far as 
six inches, and always far enough to avoid leaving a ridge 
around the pitfall. When the pit was finished he was en¬ 
tirely concealed beneath it, as in Fig. 233, except his jaws, 
fig. 233 . 
Ant Lion and its pit. 
which were spread apart horizontally at the bottom. The 
surface of the pit being as steep as the sand could be piled 
up was very easily disturbed, and when an insect ventured 
over the edge the ant-lion was apprised of it at once by the 
falling sand. He immediately began to throw up sand from 
the bottom, deepening the pit, and so causing the sand to 
slip down from the sides and the insect with it. The ant- 
lion seized it with his long jaws and held it up above his 
head, until he had sucked all lie wanted from it, when he 
threw the remainder out of the hole and repaired the trap. 
After eating he became more timid and sometimes 
would not take a second insect. If, however, several were 
15 
