An Ant Lion in Action

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An Ant Lion in Action

June 23, 2009 by myrmecos

An ant, climbing from the pit of a predatory ant lion.

The predator, buried in sand at the base of the pit, hurls a volley of debris towards its target.

Caught in the falling sand, the ant slides back into the pit.

The ant tries to escape, and again the unseen predator hurls a load of sand into her path.

No matter which way the ant turns, the ant lion adjusts its aim, sending up clouds of sand and preventing the ant from gaining traction on the steep walls of the pit.

In the end, the ant lion wins.

A tight crop of the previous image shows the jaws of the ant lion reaching up around the waist of the ant.

Removed from its pit, the predator is revealed to be little more than a set of jaws attached to an enormous stomach. These fierce creatures are the immature form of a delicate dragonfly-like insect.

The adult ant lion.

From the human vantage point, the ant lion minefield looks less menacing. Each pit conceals a larva at the bottom.

photo details (attack series): Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f9.0, 550EX flash off-camera behind pit
(larval portrait): Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 50D
all photos except adult ant lion taken at the Archbold Biological Station in Florida;
the adult was photographed in California using a Canon EOS D60

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Posted in Ants, Nature, Science | Tagged ant lion, antlion, ecology, myrmeleontidae, neuroptera, Photography, predation, sand | 16 Comments

16 Responses

on June 23, 2009 at 6:32 am homebuggarden

Science fiction and horror have nothing on the real, everyday world at ground level. Nice set of images. Thanks.
on June 23, 2009 at 6:40 am ViktoryiaN

Wow! Very cool photos! How much time did it take to capture those moments?
on June 23, 2009 at 7:25 am Jessica

Amazing photos!
on June 23, 2009 at 7:41 am Adrian Thysse

Thanks Alex, amazing indeed!
on June 23, 2009 at 9:47 am Rodrigo Feitosa

Wonderful!
on June 23, 2009 at 9:56 am Kirk

Ah! Brings back memories of childhood, tossing ants into the pits…
on June 24, 2009 at 4:15 am nopoles

Sometimes Hymenoptera may have their revenge (:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~mkolkkal/leijona/loisolento.html
(an antlion’s parasitoid in action)
on June 24, 2009 at 5:05 am Great Antlion resources

[...] research. Today, I’ve run across two excellent photo resources on antlions. One at the Mymercos Blog has exceptional images of and antlion in action and the other introduced me to Mikko [...]
on June 24, 2009 at 3:32 pm myrmecos

nopoles- wow, that’s amazing! Thanks for sharing the link.
on June 24, 2009 at 5:26 pm ant -looka- atta

I have grown to love ants as well as seeds
Is the ant a species of Camponotus?

Thanks Alex for Jo’s photo
I used to work with Jo when she worked @ Wacol
on June 25, 2009 at 6:03 am Olivier

Great work !

I see you have some french friends : http://www.linternaute.com/science/biologie/photo/l-univers-microscopique-des-fourmis/l-univers-microscopique-des-fourmis.shtml
on June 29, 2009 at 6:43 pm mfb

Fantastic!
on July 2, 2009 at 4:50 am hape

我會做螞蟻用編織ㄉ
on July 16, 2009 at 5:17 pm Luke Wade

So cool…

Surely this is the inspiration for the sarlaac pit in Starwars..?

heheh
on July 20, 2009 at 2:00 pm It’s a Trap! Amazing Ambushes from the Macroscopic Universe

[...] Antlion Vs Ant Photo: Alex Wild [...]
- on July 22, 2009 at 6:15 pm Luke Wade
  
  Heheh, cool. Thanks.