Where the antlions live

If you find a patch of sand containing many small, funnel-shaped pits, then you have found an antlion lair. Or, actually, you have found the antlions’ children’s bedrooms. At the bottom of each pit is an antlion larva, waiting for a victim. The larva has dug the pit itself, by drilling its body backwards into the sand in a spiral. It is an ant specialist, and if an ant is so careless as to step over the edge of the pit, it will immediately start sliding to the bottom. The antlion larva can feel the vibrations and will throw sand at the ant, to make it fall quicker. Eventually, the ant will fall to the bottom, where it will be grasped by the larva’s enormous jaws and have its insides sucked out. When the larva has eaten enough ants, it pupates under the sand and is eventually transformed into an animal that looks like a long, thin dragonfly.

Try to catch an ant and drop it into one of the pits. You will quickly find out if it is occupied or if the antlion larva has turned into an adult and flown away.