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Updated: May 21, 2025
In their execution the artist must have lain on his back, for the "cave" does not permit one to sit upright in it, except towards the wide and expansive front, and the subjects are on the ceiling, which is fairly flat. The floor, thick with a fine brown dust mingled with shining specks of decomposed granite, and dimpled with hundreds of pitfalls of the ant-lion, slopes upward.
"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.
But Dona Isidora, who was a very good entomologist, recognised it; and, knowing that it was a very curious insect, on this account called the attention of her daughter to it. "What is it, mamma?" inquired the little Leona, bending forward to examine it. "The ant-lion." "The ant-lion! Why, mamma, it is an insect! How then can it be called lion?"
So near, yet kept at a distance; all-powerful, but in disgrace, the apparently devoted wife was lying in wait for death and opportunity; crouching like the ant-lion at the bottom of his spiral pit, ever on the watch for the prey that cannot escape, listening to the fall of every grain of sand.
Lest the ant should peep into the pit, discover its hideous form below, and then retreat, this ant-lion had actually the cunning to bury its body in the sand, leaving only a small portion of its head to be seen. Both Dona Isidora and the little Leona remained watching with increased interest. They were very anxious to witness the result. They were not kept long in suspense.
Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely laughed at the little man as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault and attending to his business, like a merchant living on his vineyards, found the answer to the riddle when the ant-lion seized his prey, after waiting for the day when the extravagance of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse culminated in the sale of that splendid property.
My first attempt to "rush" Pornic up the steep sand-banks showed me that I had fallen into a trap exactly on the same model as that which the ant-lion sets for its prey. At each step the shifting sand poured down from above in tons, and rattled on the drip-boards of the holes like small shot.
Beside every ant-hill I behold a monster crouching: This is the ant-lion Death, He thrusteth forth his tongue and the people perish. O God of wisdom thou hast made the country: Why hast thou suffered man to make the town? Then God answered, Surely I am the maker of man: And in the heart of man I have set the city.
In the interval Doña Isidora imparted to her daughter some further information about its natural history. "The ant-lion," said she, "is not an insect in its perfect state, but only the larva of one. The perfect insect is a very different creature, having wings and longer legs. It is one of the neuropterous tribe, or those with nerved wings.
The ambuscade of the Ant-lion is classic; it does not differ greatly from the others. He excavates a conical pitfall, in which he conceals himself, and seizes the unfortunate ants and other insects whom ill-chance causes to roll into it. See e.g. Tennent, Ceylon, vol. i. p. 252. Also Réaumur, Mémoires pour d'histoire des Insectes, t. i. p. 14, and t. vi. p. 333. The baited ambush.
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