Fig. 187.—Section of trap of an ant lion.
In many insects the habits of the young are much more interesting than those of the adults. Not far from my home, in the Arroyo Seco, which leads down from the Sierra Madre, are great deposits or beds of fine sand which I find often covered with little pits (Fig. 186). If a section is made (Fig. 187), it is found to be a perfect bowl almost half an inch in depth, as though a top had been pressed into the sand and taken out. If sand is rolled into the pit, something appears quickly at the bottom and mysteriously tosses it out; and if an ant topples over the edge and rolls down the sides, out comes a fierce pair of jaws and seizes it. If the ant escapes, the unknown creature, still concealed, hurls sand at it, endeavoring to bring it down, often with success. This singular creature is the larva or immature young of the ant lion—itself an attractive, large, lace-winged creature (Fig. 188), resembling a dragon fly. It lays its eggs in dry places. The young are wingless, big-jawed creatures, which for two years live the life of a trapper, each forming a pit and concealing itself beneath the sand at the bottom, the huge jaws being in the center. Ants are the game of this lion, and as they run along they often topple over the sides which, like those of a toboggan, are very slippery. Down the ant goes, its descent being accelerated by the lion which places sand upon its back, and bombards the unfortunate, so adding to its confusion that it rolls down and is seized by the jaws of the lion. At the end of the two years the lion surrounds itself with a ball of sand and silk, and in three weeks appears as the perfect insect.
Fig. 188.—Perfect form of ant lion.
Unless one is familiar with the eggs of the aphis lion (Fig. 189) he will never find them. They resemble minute plants growing on long stems, fastened to a leaf. These hatch out and become little creatures resembling the ant lion, with huge jaws.
But the most extraordinary changes and series of different individuals are found among the so-called white ants, which are really not ants at all, but among the most destructive of all known insects. The first white travelers in Africa reported the discovery of gigantic ant hills, some of which were twelve feet in height (Fig. 190) and one hundred feet in circumference. Equally large mounds have been found in Australia, large areas of country being dotted with these striking landmarks, among the most remarkable of all animal structures. These mounds are often as hard as rock, and hunters have sometimes escaped from the charges of wild animals by climbing upon them.
Fig. 189.—Aphis lion, larva and eggs.
They are the work of the so-called white ants. A section made through one of them, as seen in the illustration, shows the singular home of a remarkable community. There are really four kinds of "ants" here, all representing a different phase in the growth of the insect, and all performing a certain work. They are the female, the male, the worker, and the soldier; and there is a winged king. In their lives these insects have many features which resemble those of man. They have a king and queen, which at first have wings; later they lose their wings and the queen grows until she is thousands of times larger than the workers, and is kept in a special chamber in the center of the pile. Here she is attended by the workers, small ants, who carry out the eggs which are laid by millions and placed in nurseries or small cemented cells, designed for the purpose. Sometimes the queen lays as many as eight thousand eggs a day. An army of workers carries them off, builds new nurseries, and adds to the heap. If an enemy appears, the soldiers rush out. These have large heads and enormous jaws, and are well fitted by nature for the work they have to perform.