Just in from the latest AntLion News:

“Close Encounter with An Ant-Lion, and Lived To Tell The Tale”

WHAT??  YIKES!!  What Can This Be About??

By Susan Andersen

Mostly, but, not ALL kidding aside, there is a critter that you may encounter right here in our Rillito Bend Neighborhood that fall under this description!

If you look closely in the soft, sandy soil, often at the base of the mesquite trees along Cactus Boulevard in the “Rain Garden”, you will often see small cone-shaped holes.  They can be solitary or grouped together, as may as 10 or more.  As the name implies- they eat ants.

Antlion Traps

Photo by Author, 2022

The ANTLION is an insect in the family Myrmeleontidae, a group of about 2,000 species found throughout the warmer regions of the world.  The larva make the sand pits to catch their ant prey.  The larvae are the longest living stage lasting about 2 years.  In comparison, the adults live about 4 weeks, or long enough to mate and lay eggs.

Antlion Larvae

Image from Encyclopedia Britannica

The Antlion trap is an engineering marvel.  It takes some time to build to the appropriate specifications for the sand type.  You can find a description of the process in READ MORE section below.

Ant-lion Trap

Image from OldBlockWriter

It is said that if you quickly dig down at the bottom of the pit with a spoon and put that soil in a small strainer, you can sieve out the Antlion, in order to actually see one.  I have tried this and NEVER been successful.  The critter is EXTREMELY sensitive to ground vibrations in order to sense an ant walking along the ground.  It is long gone by the time my heavy foot has gotten anywhere near the pit.

​You may know these creatures by many other names:  DOODLE BUG, ANTLION LACEWING, isn’t this just plain fun?

Arizona Antlion Adult

Image from BugGuide

​Adult antlions are much bigger than the larvae and often called lacewings. 

For more information and a couple of videos on trap building

Building the Trap-
(this is taken from from the Wikipedia website -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antlion - go to the website to see the citations)

First, they mark out the chosen site by a circular groove,[21] the antlion larva starts to crawl backwards, using its abdomen as a plough to shovel up the soil. By the aid of one front leg, it places consecutive heaps of loosened particles upon its head, then with a smart jerk throws each little pile clear of the scene of operations. Proceeding thus, it gradually works its way from the circumference towards the center.[2] As it slowly moves round and round, the pit gradually gets deeper and deeper, until the slope angle reaches the critical angle of repose (that is, the steepest angle the sand can maintain, where it is on the verge of collapse from slight disturbance), and the pit is solely lined by fine grains.[22] By digging in a spiral when constructing its pit, the antlion minimises the time needed to complete the pit.[22]
When the pit is completed, the larva settles down at the bottom, buried in the soil with only the jaws projecting above the surface, often in a wide-opened position on either side of the very tip of the cone.[23] The steep-sloped trap that guides prey into the larva's mouth while avoiding crater avalanches is one of the simplest and most efficient traps in the animal kingdom.[24] The fine grain lining ensures that the avalanches which carry prey are as large as possible.[22] Since the sides of the pit consist of loose sand at its angle of repose,[25] they afford an insecure foothold to any small insects that inadvertently venture over the edge, such as ants. Slipping to the bottom, the prey is immediately seized by the lurking antlion; if it attempts to scramble up the treacherous walls of the pit, it is speedily checked in its efforts and brought down by showers of loose sand which are thrown at it from below by the larva.[2] By throwing up loose sand from the bottom of the pit, the larva also undermines the sides of the pit, causing them to collapse and bring the prey with them.

Wikipedia entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antlion

Encyclopedia Britannica
​https://www.britannica.com/animal/antlion#/media/1/28710/118648
​
The Arizona Antlion - Brachynemurus sackeni
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1993603/bgimage
There is also the Tucson antlion - Chaetoleon
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1600067/bgimage

Another couple of blog posts that are kind of fun
https://justineschluntz.com/2016/11/17/whats-hole-episode-5/   
https://oldblockwriter.blogspot.com/2018/02/ant-lions.html

Iowa State University
https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/antlions-and-doodlebugs  

Ohio State University
https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1693

Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWq-5g_OCjI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1_-XRi05Ps