antlion - Trapping prey

The larva of a nocturnal, damselfly-like insect with a long abdomen and lightly patterned wings. Antlion larvae prey on other insects, typically lying in wait, often at the base of a steep-sided, conical trap into which the prey fall. (Order: Neuroptera. Family: Myrmeliontidae, c.600 species.)

iAntlion
An adult antlion, camouflaged on a plank
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Superorder: Endopterygota Order: Neuroptera Superfamily: Myrmeleontoidea Family: Myrmeleontidae

Antlions are a family of insects in the order Neuroptera, classified as Myrmeleontidae, from the Greek "myrmex", meaning "ant", and "leon", meaning "lion". The antlion larvae eat ants and other insects, while the adult antlion eats pollen and nectar.

The antlion larva is often called a "'doodlebug"'.

The adult antlion has two pairs of long, narrow, multi-veined wings in which the apical veins enclose regular oblong spaces, and a long, slender abdomen. The antlion larva is a ferocious-appearing creature with a robust, fusiform body bearing three pairs of walking legs and a prothorax forming a slender mobile neck for the large square head, which bears an enormous pair of sicklelike jaws (mandibles) with several sharp, hollow projections. Depending on species and where it lives, the larvae will either hide under leaves or pieces of wood, or dig pits in sandy areas. The larva makes a globular cocoon of sand stuck together with fine silk spun, it is said, from a slender spinneret at the posterior end of the body. they exhibit the greatest disparity in size between larva and adult of any type of holometabolous insects, by virtue of the adults having an extremely thin, flimsy exoskeleton (in other words, they have extremely low mass per unit of volume). When the pit is completed, the larva settles down at the bottom, buried in the soil with only the jaws projecting above the surface, often in a wide-opened position on either side of the very tip of the cone.

Trapping prey

Since the sides of the pit consist of loose sand they afford an insecure foothold to any small insects that inadvertently venture over the edge, such as ants. or if it attempts to scramble again up the treacherous walls of the pit, it is speedily checked in its efforts and brought down by showers of loose sand which are jerked at it from below by the larva. Antlion larvae are capable of capturing and killing a variety of insects, and can even subdue small spiders. Amazingly, this behavior has also evolved in a family of flies, the Vermileonidae, whose larvae dig the exact same sort of pit and also feed on ants. When it first hatches, the tiny larva specializes in very small insects, but as it grows larger, it constructs larger pits and thus catches larger prey.

Although antlion larvae have a ferocious appearance, they are completely harmless to humans.

In certain species of Myrmeleontidae, such as Dendroleon pantheormis, the larva, although resembling that of Myrmeleon structurally, makes no pitfall, but seizes passing prey from any nook or crevice in which it shelters.