Antlion facts: Scariness in the Sand | Animal Fact Files
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Antlions are the things of nightmares. Apparently there are people who don't believe these animals exist, but they are absolutely real. Antlions are also known as doodbugs and they build pitfall traps for any would-be passersby insects who are unfortunate enough to fall in. At the center of these perfectly crafted pits are antlion larvae waiting with mandibles open. Now, not all antlions create these pits. Out of approximately 2,000 living there are some who build pit traps, others who remain in leaf litter, and some who also live in holes in trees - they're not all making doom pits. Adult antlions look nothing like their larvae and with a lifespan of only a month as well as a sloppy flight pattern they're nowhere near as imposing.
Scientific Name: Family - Myrmeleontidae
Range: most of the world; most abundant in warm areas
Size: larvae are under an inch (2.54cm); adults can reach 3in (7.62cm)
Diet: mostly ants as larvae but also other arthropods, nectar and pollen as adults
Lifespan: less than a year up to three years
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When I was a kid used to put ants in these guys pitfalls and watch them eat, I was such an evil child lol. Loved the video!
I think we all did these kinds of strange things as kids as a way of exploring our world. Thanks so much for watching! Glad you enjoyed it. =)
Hayden Ash me too I always used to pick any ant and just wait for them to sink while the antlion eats it.
SAME
Same here. Lol
Me too, brah. I also liked to throw insects into grass spider webs. Ah, childhood 😈
3:27 "The adults emerge and let loose." What a way to start adult life.
Cool bugs! Thanks for the video.
diaper factories' biggest nightmare... ;)
Sounds like getting ready for work in the morning. Haha
I'll never complain about being constipated again.
Adults:"Life is shit, literally!"
Antlions are completely harmless to humans, I spent my whole childhood going to river sandbars to swim and play and these guys were EXTREMELY common, but every time you get anywhere near one the antlions scurry underground and are very hard to catch or even see. They have no interest in messing with things much bigger than an ant.
I always just use a thin stick to tap on the middle and lure them out and when they bite down on the stick i scoop them up with my hand and put them in a container
Easiest way to bring them to the surface I found was sprinkle a little nearby sand only a few grains at a time, they think it's something stuck in their little Doodle hole and come to the surface to eat it. Then you just scoop them up..
I put one on my finger yesterday and he just looked at me
@@angryboi595 that antlion probably like "bruh.......I can't possibly eat this" .
You're talking about soldier crabs Einstein! OMFG! 😂🤣🤣😅😆😆😆😅😂😂😂😂🤣😅😆
Alternate title - Ant Lions: I don't poop for my entire childhood.
Boa Constrictors have the same common and scientific name. The "True Red Tail" Boas are Boa Constrictor Constrictor, while the Common Boas are Boa Constrictor Imperator. There's others like Occidentalis but otherwise there's many localities and subspecies, like Cloud Boas etc. Argentine are one of my favorite "Wild Type" localities, as opposed to morphs.
You also have boa Constrictor Honduras
uuuhhhhh......what?
It looks like that bug from Ceti Alpha 5 that Khan put in Chekhov’s ear in Star Trek 2. I still have the nightmares.
Reminds me of the Sand Kings from the Outer Limits.
That weird guy you know I just made that comment up above haha I was waiting for khan to pop out and grill me about why I'm there lol
Duuuuude every single time I see an ant lion that movie pops in my head lol.
Omg I had so much trama from that movie I didn't sleep right for... a long time. It was the first thing I thought when I saw this bug's body 😣
I'm an amateur entomologist. About ten years ago I was at my job at a hardware store. My boss knew I was called the Bug Guy, he comes to me one day and says a customer is complaining about cone shaped holes in her garden, I said she has antlions, nothing to worry about. He comes back about and hour later and says he actually looked them up, and the customer confirmed they were antlions. He then says how the hell did you know that? I smiled and said I read a lot... I've also kept a few in jars to watch them.
Wow, what an entertaining fictional story!
@@nippolopolis4431 Sorry, it's true. I've been keeping insects and arachnids for pets since I was a kid. Currently have three tarantulas, an isopod (woodlice) colony, two species of millipede and a very ill tempered emperor scorpion. By the way, if you want to keep an antlion I suggest a one gallon jar with about 3" of sandy soil and a screen lid, to keep any ants not eaten from escaping. I also recommend letting them go around late August/early September, so they can hibernate over the winter.
Does your emperor scorpion have a name?
So it knows Poison Fang, Dig, and possibly Bug Bite. Pretty good for a Bug type!
Forgot the passive ability sandtrap
I love your Pokemon references just so you know...keep it up! Btw the best Pokemon is a bug type, Scyther. Literally just my opinion though
It also knows sand attack.
Fun fact! The evolution of Flygon is inspired from the Antlion!
Trapinch - Antlion with Arena Trap
Vibrava - Nymph?
Flygon - mature form of Antlion
I got a shiny that hatched from a 10km egg and it knew Sand tomb and rest 😂
That moment when you realize that the Sand Maggots in Diablo 2 are actually ant lions but are called maggots instead.
Well kinda thay origanaly where looked at as termites but made to look more like antlions for how terrifying thay do look at least more so then termites
In some games they just literally called them Antlion. It became a trope of its own
I was waiting for Khan to pop out and talk about how it's the only indigenous lifeform left on this hell of a planet. While he also tries to grill me about why I'm there and then letting them Burrow into my ear then take over my brain
These are... pets.
I had one of these as a pet when i was little.
Dirt in a big jar, feed em ants.
I love that lol
Without a doubt some of my favorite insects! Catch these all day long as a kid.
Thanks. Now I know my new rap name.
Bish, call me antlion
Cause I'm a lion in disguise
Moving booty first
Remove the dirt
And then I hide.
Trapping
Like I'm trapping in the mud
See you falling
In your ear I'm like was up!
Underrated comment bro. Good on ya!
Well, there's plenty of ant lion insects around in my dirt floor garage. Doodle bugs are small and harmless. But I don't think there's any gigantic man eating alien ant lion insects about the desert. Only in Star Wars the movie.
I mean, would YOU want to poop when you can only walk backwards?
Since the Trappinch line in Pokemon is based off of these, YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME NOW THAT AS SOON AS THEY EVOLVE, FLYGON DONT "LET LOSE." WITH THEIR POOP.
Great video! We have these and we have fun dropping insects in the pit.
By the way, your voice sounds like the Ice Age Farmer.
Interesting, the wings are really pretty. TY for cool video
Thanks for watching!
Antlion A.K.A. The Doodlebug
Doodlebug, doodlebug, come out your den!!!! You must be from s.e. KY
I was obsessed with these guys when I was little, seeing them made me feel as if I was looking at a tiny dinosaur.
BEST CHILDHOOD ever... catching antlion using my sister's hair & an ant tied at the end of the strand it... i also put the ant lion inside a dead spiders body to enable it to prank my friends as it reanimates
My first exposure to antlions was through video games such as final fantasy, at which point I assumed they were some kind of mythological creature (probably due to the greatly exaggerated size). I think I was in High School when I found out they were a real animal, but for some reason I just assumed they only lived in deserts.
Pretty much every summer we have to deal with a lot of ants at my house. Last spring I was seeing a lot of anthills around and was dreading that it seemed like the ants were going to be even worse that year. In addition to the anthills I was also seeing these pits in the dirt around my patio and thought they were also part of the extensive ant tunnels. However, summer came and didn't bring that many ants with it, so I got curious and decided to actually investigate the pits. Upon seeing the fine dirt being thrown out of one of the pits it suddenly clicked in my mind and a quick google search confirmed that there were in fact antlions in my area.
It still blows my mind that something I put in the same category of my mind as unicorns and dragons as a kid live all around my house, protecting me from an ant invasion.
We have a ton in our barn! We leave them alone and they vibe eating bugs
having played all of Final Fantasy whilst growing up, I was today years old when I learned that Antlions were actually real!!
I used to catch these when I was a wee lad
Lol,same an still do sometimes
The first time I every learned about antlions was from the game Golden Sun, where they appear as an enemy in a desert; a few years later I found out they were actually real when I found them in my backyard!
I used to tease them out from hiding by lightly brushing a pine-needle about in the pit in a frantic manner to imitate an ant. It was always funny to watch the antlion burst out just to find something much bigger than an ant!
Same !
There's something cosmically horrifying about that. Imagine you order a pizza, hear a knock at the door and someone say "pizza delivery", and when you open the door you just see a massive, indescribably big eye staring straight into your soul and there's no pizza. Just an entity a thousand times bigger than god knocking on your door to mess with you.
You made a great video about antlions and their life cycle.
At least they're not like the ones in Half-Life.
Poor Lazlo.. the finest mind of his generation..
*Stepped on some sand.*
I used to catch the larvae all the time when I was a kid, just fascinated by them. I'm kinda surprised you didn't show its round silk egg sack, which I've found at the bottom of the pit one a few times. (You can figure out how I found out it was an egg sack.) I also never knew they grew into flying bugs. Color me surprised.
"Mollie Mollie kom uit jou ma en jou pa eet jam brood" me singing this while putting a stick in that hole swirling it around when it comes out every time being amazed hahaha
We all know our younger selves were full of shit. Antlions just take it to a more literal conclusion.
As soon as I read this the narrator mentioned that
Awesome video! These antlion pits are so cool!🤩
Ant lions in real life: We chill humans
Ant lions in terraria: So you have chosen death
Interesting! They're rather timid when trying to get them out of their pit. They will often times play dead too. They're pretty vulnerable when they're not in the sand. The only advantage they have is when they're in the dirt (or sand).
Great video!!! May I suggest the life of an Anaconda? :D
Thanks so much! And absolutely! We have a video about anacondas right here: ua-cam.com/video/ssVjMeMlJ2c/v-deo.html
Thanks for watching!
@@AnimalFactFiles you actually did!! Omg I'm so excited!!
Pretty cool. When I was a kid used to feed them ants. Reminds of the pit monster in return of the jedi. I had no idea that they were larva.
Living in my basement bedroom as a teen I had some of these guys in an open terrarium. Any creepy crawller that came across me while I slept ended up in the sarlacc pit.
Thank you, now I don't have to go around thinking the JRPG version of these is the only information I'll know about them
As a child i used to go in ny yard and cacht this little fellas,we used to call them "chachitos" in Spanish (the translation is basically piggies) ,i used to live in a very dry and small town so they were extremely common and since I knew the perfect way to always catch one I would grab as many as I could and then feed them ants.
Then when I was bored I put them back in the yard.
I used to do antlion fishing. I blow one hole to get one antlion then ask for my mother's strand of hair then tie its head then let loose to the other holes to lure out other antlions... Those good old days.
Could you do the grasshopper mouse, also known as the _werewolf_ mouse?
Oooh sounds like a lot of fun!
@@AnimalFactFiles they are the only fully carnivorous species of mouse, and mark their territory by howling.
(though to us it sounds more like a whistle, because mouse)
A real-life Sarlacc in miniature.
Character in a horror movie:"What is this pit I see? Let me get to the bottom of it and see what's there. "(Screaming ensures)
We would play with them when we were little and I’ve always called them “toritos” in spanish
How would you play with them
Put sand in they’re little traps and then when they came up we would dig em up and just watch them. Or put ants in their little traps and watch them take the ants. We were kids so that was entertaining for us
@@yessyvaldez5713 i would catch them and feed em to my chicke
We used to call them “coconitas” didn’t know their name was hormiga leon till now.
@@seanescalera4113 yea me neither haha
When I was young, me and my friends used to fish for ant lions using a strand of hair. It was fun because don't let go of their potential prey once they take that bite.
Wait. I think you glossed over something there.
Fact 1, Antlion larvae can hang around for three years underground
Fact 2, Antlion larvae can't poop.
Antlion larvae can't poop for three years?
Why else would they not be able to walk backwards? lol
Very interesting little creature, great video guys.🧠⚡
Thank you so much!
I love ant lions! I used to catch so many of these as a kid. They are awesome! XD
How about a weird one and lets do some fresh water sponges. Spongilla lacustris. So weird, and I want to get some for my pond.... XD
Any lions are really cool! And we have a freshwater sponge video you can watch here: ua-cam.com/video/wFCv__pbKdo/v-deo.html
@@AnimalFactFiles No fckin wayyyyyyyy OMG
a song we used to do as kids was '' doodle bug doodle bug round and round doodle bug doodle bug come out the ground'' you'd spin a small stick in their burrow while singing this and they would pop up
I first discovered these creatures in 3rd grade..along the side of the school where nothing grows, it's powdery dry soil where many many of the little funnels are scattered around, one day myself & a few other kids were checking out who lives there. Freaky & tiny, ant lyon's at the center/base of each funnel ! We didn't know the names then..thanks to this poster & UA-cam I know know. thx.
I'm 68 years old and never heard of one of these things. Saw the little cones near the foundation of my house and freaked out a little since I recently had a termite infestation. Used Google Lense (they didn't pay me to say that) and took a pic of the cone shaped depressions around my house. It was then that I learned of the existence of an Antlion. They are all good in my book.
Antlion so creepy. Very good👏👏👏👏
We called these doodle bugs lol my Granny use to say to sing "doodle bug doodle bug ya house is on fire!!" well scream that n it comes out! I think the vibration of the screaming made them come out cuz I could just scream at it n it would come out. There soft little dudes too. Is that weird?
And the Dobson fly is a grampus. Good fish bait but they bite hard!
That's hilarious and cute somehow, as if it comes out because you told it its house is on fire lol
Oh crap....looks like the things the klingons used in "wrath of khan".... thanks for putting this in my head now.... 👍
Huh... after playing Terraria and seeing these everywhere in the desert... yeah no these things are scary
Hahaha I clicked on this video because of Terraria too, fuck those things dude
Yes my childhood was filled with feeding these and spiders and ant farms. Lol nature is crazy .
Absolutely love this mini Sarlacc pits.....
I am surprised you didn't mention how they inspired the Sarlacc Pit from Star Wars and the Trappinch line in Pokemon
Hey, could you add winter stoneflies to the list?
A real life Sarlaac from Tatooine. Only much smaller.
The low budget Star Wars looks great!! The sarlacc pit.
they actually had these in star trek wrath of khan they went in the ear and controlled people (i know they dont accually do that )you should look at the simularity of it
The adults are actually quite pretty! I like them!
Hi I hope all's well with everyone ✌️🤠🇬🇧
Hard to believe that bug from Star Trek is real.
Loved catching those things in FL. Would relocate them near fire ant colonies, natural pest control. Definitely an inspiration for many movie monsters yet completely harmless and beneficial.
That's the bug Kahn stuck in Sulu's ear on the Wrath of Kahn
So...you're telling me the store up to three years worth of poop? And I thought I had it rough waiting for a bathroom break...
Excellent thank you 😊
These are everywhere in Texas especially in West Texas where the soil is like powder or fine sand.
this is what the evolution line of a Pokemon that goes by the name Trapinch is based off of :)
cause Trapinch's Pokedex entries describes exactly how this animal hunts for food as a larvae
Oh I never thought of that you're right! So glad you pointed that out!!
@@AnimalFactFiles and when you said in the video dig with their rear, I see even more how Trapinch represents them, but in a reverse manner, cause the antlion's heads are small compare to the rear side, but it's totally opposite for Trapinch's anatomy and they both use that big part of their body to dig around, I know Trapinch's Pokedex implies it crushes boulders with its powerful jaws and I'd imagine it digs with its jaws as well
That thing reminds me of the ear creature from Star Trek "Wrath of Khan"
Well I'm glad its fairly obvious to find the babies holes. I def don't wanna step on that jaw. Even if its only an inch long.
Not going to lie. After watching the old star trek show when they had bugs they controlled people's brains, I put an ant lien in my brother's sleeping ear. He had to go to the ER 😂
Never knew they turned into a flying insect. when I was in elementary school, we used to dig them up and play with them in between changing classes all around the underpinning of the portable. One day a boy I had a super crush on, walked up to me and my friend Kelly with his friend. They looked at what we had, and then the guy I had a crush on smacked my hand, and the dirt went all over my face and in my mouth along with the ant lion. Needless to say I didn’t have a crush on him anymore after that day. The next period I spent the whole time writing a nasty letter to him to be delivered but then I got caught by the teacher. she asked me what I was doing. Then she walked over to my desk and picked up the letter and read it to the class, and every time she came to a cuss word she paused, would put the paper down and circle it. I told her I found it, and I was just reading it and my friend Kelly, who didn’t even know I was writing the letter, stood up and told the teacher, “I was with her when she found it!” trying to cover for me. I never forgot her for that. Anyway, I still got sent to the office for the rest of the period all because of an ant lion, and a crush.
I drop insects in and watch these guys all the time as a kid.
I catch these outside my house sometimes, they have never bit me yet, one time I kept one and watched it make its burrow.
Throwback to the movie Enemy Mine. Human-sized alien ant lions.
Lovely videos :D
Thank you so much! 😊
I love these critters, had fun feeding them ants...👍
just realized. people now live surrounded by lawns and concrete. that's why they talk about when they were a kid and had all these things. (that can't live on concrete or lawns). like lawncrete. fortunately i have antlions here and i try not to step on them.
I loved finding these up in the northern states, when I was a kid.
Growing up in Arizona seen lot's of those pits in the ground.
When I was a kid one of my favorite things was go to the beach if feed those old guys
I know exactly how the antlions feel. Two days of food in Turkey backed me up a threat
Don't even think about trying to escape.
I used to play with ant lions when i was a kid, ' yesterday' . Let them turn little backward circles..or catch a bunch of ants and feed them..
Feeding these was entertainment growing up
As a child I use to drop ants in the lion pits and watch the dirt kick up and the ant be taken under the sand. I always wanted to know what those things looked liked lol
found these nightmares in and around sandboxes and jungle gyms
Maybe my favorite insect to watch as a boy. I used to feed them fire ants.😁
Poor lazlo! One of the fin st minds of our generation!
When I was a kid I would catch different small insects and drop them into the antlion traps to see how big an insect they could take on.
in Indonesia, we call it "Undur-undur" means backwards
some people consider it as diabetes medicine.
Growing up in Miami, Ant-lions were our best buddies. A slightly larger variety of Red Ants known as "Fire Ants" were the true enemy of children growing up down south. A few strategically located ant-lions could discourage the construction of Red Ant mounds by the most vicious of all ants, the dreaded FIRE ANT. Step on a Red Ant hill and not notice for 4 or 5 seconds and you had 50 to 100 welts that were painful all the way up your leg. There is a real reason to wear fairly tight underwear briefs, and it was the RED ANT. You did not want an invasion of the genitals by these EVIL BASTARDS. You would be in SERIOUS misery for a week or more.
When I catch a small antlion, I tie its head with hair and then I hook the other antlion that is submerged in the sand. when bitten, I'll suddenly pull and then the ones in the sand will come out. now they're two, just do it over and over until you catch a lot.
It’s said the only thing an Antlion fears is Gordon Freeman.
put a weaver ant nest right at the centre of that area on 1:58
F E E D
So that's why you only fought antlions in a sandpit in Final Fantasy 9... the more you know.
My grandma's back yard had a bunch of these. I would go find and capture ants and toss them into the hole to watch them get eaten