Identifier: insectstheirlife00bastuoft (find matches)
Title: Insects : their life-histories and habits
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Bastin, Harold
Subjects: Insects
Publisher: London : T.C. & E.C. Jack
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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what oval in contour, with a flat headarmed with formidable, curved mandibles. It has aningrained habit of walking backwards, and uses its convexabdomen as a plough. When constructing the pitfall forwhich it is famous, it usually begins by making a circulargroove to correspond with the margin of the proposedexcavation. It then ploughs round and round in diminish-ing circles, constantly jerking out the sand with its shovel-like head. The final result is a funnel-shaped hollow, inthe bottom of which the maker lies buried with only its uglyjaws exposed to view. Any small insect which chancesto run over the edge of the pit slides downward on theyielding sand, its descent being hastened by the ant-lion,which casts up jets of sand upon its victim. When thelatter is seized, further struggles are futile, for the pit-makers jaws are so constructed that when once buried inthe tissues of its prey they need not again be opened. There is no mouth-orifice of the usual character (writes Plate XXVTII
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Sexton or Burying Beetles (Xecrophorus) at work upon the carcase of a Dormouse

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