Doodlebugs That Live in the Dirt

Description

• The adult antlion resembles a damselfly, with antenna that is shorter and bent. Adults measure 1 to 2 inches in length and have a brown to gray body. Like damselflies, they have 4 equal-sized wings. Antlion larvae have a broad, flattened body, three pairs of short legs and a flat head. They have long mandibles which are used for injecting prey with venom when hunting.

Life Cycle

• Adult antlion females lay eggs in warm, dry sites. The female inserts her abdomen into the soil, laying a single egg below ground level, with up to 20 eggs per site. The hatched larvae will prey on small insects, especially ants, for up to two years. They eventually form cocoons and pupate. Adults live for four weeks, mating at night. The females lay eggs, and the cycle begins again.

Constructing Pits

• Doodlebugs dig a shallow, cone-shaped pit approximately an inch deep. The insects leave spiral-shaped trails that resemble doodles as they dig the pit, thus the name. The insects build the pit in dirt composed of small, loose particles, such as quartz sand and red sandstone. The larvae excavate the pit using their broad, oval-shaped abdomens to plow and their flat heads to flick the dirt upward. A doodlebug pit can be constructed within 15 minutes.

Capturing Prey

• Once the pit is built, the doodlebug waits at the bottom beneath soil with only its mandibles protruding. When an ant or other insects steps on the rim of the pit, the soil crumbles and it falls into the pit. The waiting doodlebug pierces the insect and injects it with venom, then sucks out its body fluids. Afterward, the doodlebug tosses the carcass out of the pit.