How they build pit-fall traps, kill, digest, eat and overcome prey larger than selves - Ant Lions

Opis:
Ant lions are revisited in this second Nature at Your Door episode featuring these ferocious neuropterans. Ant lion larvae are exhibited in close-ups and compared to the harmless and elusive adult. Close-up video shows Ant Lions building traps and subduing and spider prey. I explain how the sickle shaped jaws penetrate arthropod prey exoskeletons and inject a paralyzing venom. This is followed by injection of digestive enzymes and the meal is complete by sucking in the liquified inner body of the arthropod. Ant Lions can capture and overcome prey much larger than themselves because of forward facing hairs and the weight of sand and soil they carry and brace themselves in.