The Insect Folk Part 41

And what a sad little cannibal he would be!

The larva of the aphis lion has no distinct thorax. Its legs are attached to the upper segments of the body, and its metamorphosis is like that of the corydalus.

When about to become a pupa, it makes for itself a little covering of white silk. Here it lies quite motionless and undergoes the final transformation.

Yes, its metamorphosis is complete.

It bites an opening through its silken walls, and out steps--not the hungry, little, all-devouring aphis lion, but this elegant lady with her pale-green lacelike wings and her large, golden eyes.

You see the aphis lion is our very good friend.

It helps us get rid of the aphids, and we should never kill a lacewing or a child of the lacewing.

THE ANT LION

John has found something he wants us all to see.

We will go with him.

Now we will sit down on this sand bank and look at what he has to show us. See! those smooth little funnels in the sand.

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Those are what we have come out to see.

Let us watch them a while.

Mollie says an ant is walking close to the rim of the funnel she is watching. Now the ant slips over the edge and slides down the smooth sides of the funnel.

And see! from the bottom of the funnel leap out two curved jaws and--good-by, ant!

The ant has been dragged down out of sight through a hole in the bottom of the funnel.

What a strange proceeding!

Who can be living down there at the bottom of the funnel?

We are sorry to disturb such a pretty piece of work, but we shall have to dig out one of the funnels. We shall have to be quick, too.

There, there, under the trowel! No, it is gone. There it is again. Dig fast, Ned. That is right. He has put it with a trowelful of sand into our box.

We will gently shake out the sand until we uncover it.

Mabel says it is just what she thought it was--a larva.

Yes, it is a larva.

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You see it looks a little like the lacewing larva, and it, too, belongs to the Neuroptera.

What jaws!

How do you suppose it makes its tunnel?

If we give it plenty of sand, and keep very quiet, perhaps it will go to work.

There! it is throwing the sand about.

May says it is using its own head as a trowel. Yes, it is shovelling the sand away with its head.

Why is Ned laughing? Oh, see the ant lion he is watching! An ant slid part way down its funnel and tried to climb out again, and the ant lion down below is flinging sand at it.

There! it has succeeded in making the poor ant slip; down it goes, and now the ant lion has seized it and dragged it down under the ground.

It is easy to find these pit-falls of the ant lion in sand banks in the summer-time.

Yes, May, the ant lions eat many ants, and they moult and grow, and, finally, they, too, make a little coc.o.o.n about themselves.

Yes, the little silken room they weave we call a coc.o.o.n, but the ant lions make theirs of silk and sand.

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Within the coc.o.o.n they become motionless pupae, and finally appear as silver-winged little creatures that bear no resemblance to the large-jawed, ever hungry, ant lion.

May says she thinks the Neuroptera differ from all the other orders in the way the larvae transform.

That is true, May, they do.

In no other order that we have studied do the insects go into the pupal state to undergo the final transformation.

Who remembers what the young of insects that undergo an incomplete metamorphosis are sometimes called?

Dear me, you all remember!

Yes, the young are sometimes called nymphs.

The nymphs do not change into pupae.

The young gra.s.shoppers do not change into motionless pupae, they just keep on growing until they are perfect adults.

Young gra.s.shoppers are sometimes called nymphs instead of larvae.

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