Ant Lion
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ant Lion. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a predatory insect with four gauzy wings, somewhat resembling the dragon fly . The common name arises from the manner in which the young secure food. The larva of an ant-lion is about half an inch long and has a pair of strong curved jaws. It crawls to a dry, sandy spot where insects are likely to run, and flings the sand with its head until it has a circular pit from one to three inches across, with sloping sides of sliding sand. It then buries itself to the eyes in the center of the pit and waits for some hurrying ant to come sliding down the funnel. The ant-lion now bestirs itself and aids the ant in its descent by flinging sand at it, or by stirring the sand below. In this way an apparently helpless "worm" outwits one of the most nimble and intelligent insects. Chambers speaks of a European species that makes a pit thirty inches in diameter. Entomologists report over fifty species from the semi-arid regions of the southwestern United States . Cape lion. Carnivorous animals 2026 Editor's Note: The ant-lion's sand-pit trap, so vividly described here, inspired one of science fiction's monsters: the Sarlacc pit of Return of the Jedi is essentially a giant ant-lion. Southern American children still call the larva a 'doodlebug' and coax it up by reciting rhymes over its pit. (Ed: BR 2026-06-20)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the larva of an insect (myrmeleon obsoletus, etc.) of the order of neuroptera, remarkable for its ingenious methods of capturing ants and other insects, on which it feeds, by making pitfalls in the sand. Some species are common in North America. The perfect insect is about an inch long, and has a general resemblance to the dragon-fly. It feeds upon the juices of insects, especially ants, in order to obtain which it cleverly excavates a funnel-shaped pitfall in sandy ground, and lies in wait at the bottom. When insects approach too near to the edge of the hole, the loose sand gives way, so that they fall down the ANTLERS OF AMERICAN RED DEER AT steep slope. If they do not fall quite to the bottom, but begin to scramble up again, the ant-lion throws sand upon them by jerking his head, and thus brings them back. It employs its head in the same way to eject their bodies from its pit, after their juices have been sucked.