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Cool Link: The Antlion Pit: a doodlebug anthology - An amazingly broad resource for anything and everything to do with ant lions. Includes videos, educational resources, ant lions in human culture and mythology, ant lion natural history, and a "Doodlebug Oracle". back to Nature Notebook photo: Mike Dunn |
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Did
you ever try to force a doodlebug out of the ground? If so, you were
playing with a lion -- an ant lion. An ant lion larva digs a small pit
of sand and then waits in the center for its prey, usually ants or caterpillars,
to tumble in. The hapless prey can’t climb the crumbling walls.
The ant lion larva grabs its prey with pincers and injects a paralyzing
fluid. After sucking out the insect’s juices, the ant lion throws
the prey’s empty exoskeleton out of the pit. You can create a
temporary ant lion home by scooping up the pit and placing it in a wide-mouthed
glass jar.