Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 21, 2025
It flies but little during the day, and is usually found quietly sitting amongst the leaves of plants, and seems to be one of the most pacific and harmless of insects. How very different with the larva the very reverse See!" Dona Isidora pointed to the ant-lion that was just then beginning to bestir itself, and both sat silent regarding it attentively.
They are hollow, and in this resemble those of the Ant-lion, who sucks and drains her capture without having to divide it; but there is this great difference, that the Ant-lion leaves copious remnants, which are afterwards flung outside the funnel-shaped trap dug in the sand, whereas the Glow-worm, that expert liquifier, leaves nothing, or next to nothing.
The wings of this species rest against each other, forming a covering over its body, like the roof upon a house. They are most beautifully reticulated like the finest lace-work, and variegated with dark spots, that give the insect a very elegant appearance. Its habits are quite different to those which it follows when a larva, or in that state when it is the ant-lion.
"It is a name given it," replied the lady, "on account of its fierce habits, which, in that respect, assimilate it to its powerful namesake, the king of the beasts; and, indeed, this little creature has more strength and ferocity in proportion to its size than even the lion himself." "But why the ant-lion, mamma?" "Because it preys principally on ants. I have said there are insect ant-eaters.
As we drove along I glanced down into those cellars, with steps so polished, so slippery, so well-soaped, that one might slide in as into the den of an ant-lion to see if I might not discover Hoffman himself seated on a tun, his feet crossed upon the bowl of his gigantic pipe, and surrounded by a tangle of grotesque chimeras, as he is represented in the vignette of the French translation of his stories; and, to tell the truth, there was nothing of the kind in these subterranean shops whose proprietors were just opening their doors!
"Sooner or later it must involve him in its airy meshes, eh, Squills? entrap him into its fatal cerebral cell. There his fate waits him, like the ant-lion in its pit." "Too true," quoth Squills. "What a phrenological lecturer you would have made!" "Go then, my love," said my father, "and lay no blame but on this melancholy cavity of mine, where cautiousness is not!
A neatly timed dinner, served on plate lent by an uncle, the attention shown to him by the only daughter of the house, the gossip of the town, a well-to-do sub-lieutenant who seemed likely to cut the ground from under his feet all the innumerable snares, in short, of the provincial ant-lion were set for him, and to such good purpose, that Castanier said five years later, "To this day I do not know how it came about!"
If you will sit back and not frighten it, I have no doubt it will soon give you an opportunity of seeing how it manages the matter." Leona took a seat by the side of her mother. They were both at just such a distance from the ant-lion that they could observe every movement it made; but for a considerable time it remained quiet; no doubt, because they had alarmed it.
Then, after floating for a time among a thousand contradictory ideas, he felt he was strongest in his own house, and he resolved to watch it as the ant-lion watches his sandy labyrinth. "Fouguereau," he said to the porter, "I am not at home to any one who comes to see me. If any one calls to see madame, or brings her anything, ring twice.
When an ant has fallen headlong down into the pit it makes frantic efforts to escape, and if the ant-lion sees that it is likely to get beyond his reach, he then with his forceps flings some sand at it with such unerring aim the poor victim is sure to roll over and over until it reaches the jaws of its captor, who feasts upon it and then flings the remains of the body out of the pit.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking