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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Ant lions

It is so hot and dry here at the Shakespere barn that the ant lions
are dormant. It has been years since I saw any of their conical traps.
The ant lion (doodlebug, ladybug, or etc) burrows down into dusty soil. They then begin tossing dust until they form a cone with the angle of repose just about critical. Then when an ant stumbles into the trap its struggles cause it to slide to the bottom where the ant lion waits to eat the ant. It is a really sophisticated trap system. The little insect provides hours of entertainment to southern kids until TV, video games, and helicopter parents destroyed their childhoods. We would gently poke at the side of a cone to provoke the antlion into flinging dust out of the depression. The girls sang a song about doodlebug fly away for your home is on fire. I still don't know what that meant.

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