INSECT SUCKERS AND BITERS. 225 
Nor has he been content with ravaging the 
water and the air only, for one of his very near 
relations, the ant-lion {Myrmeleon formicarius) — 
which is to be found in France and most warm coun- 
tries, and which when it has its wings might be 
mistaken for a dragon-fly — lives its early life in dry 
sand, in which it twists round and round, till it has 
made a funnel-shaped hole at the bottom of which 
it lies (see plate, p. 135). This it does near an ants' 
nest, and when an ant running on the edge of the 
funnel slips in, the ant-lion flings sand upon it so 
that it tumbles to the bottom, and he can devour it. 
Thus in the water, on the land, and in the air, the 
dragon-flies have a good time of it, if they can only 
escape the swallows and other quick -flying birds, 
which pounce down upon them, and the scorpion- 
flies, which, though much smaller than themselves, 
sting them to death. 
And now we come to the most interesting of 
all the nerve-winged animals, the Termites or white- 
ants, the plagues of India and Africa. Every one 
has heard of these destructive creatures, which feed 
so cunningly out of sight, eating their way from the 
ground beneath, up the middle of posts, beams, 
woodwork, and furniture ; and even sometimes prop- 
ping up with hardened mud and slime the build- 
ings they are eating away, so that no one finds 
them out till all at once some part falls down and 
exposes the rottenness within. They are so clever, 
and have so many habits like true ants that they 
have been called by their name, and most people 
think that they are their near relations. But this is 
not so ; on the contrary, while the ants stand at the 
