Four-spotted antlion
The four-spotted antlion looks a lot like a dragonfly, with a long thin body and four see-through wings with brown spots. It has short feelers with little clubs on the ends. Its baby is a fat brown hunter that lives hidden in dry sand.
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Fun facts
Unlike many other antlions, its baby does not dig a pit trap. It wanders through the sand and hunts.
The baby looks nothing like the grown-up. It is dark brown and about 1 to 2 centimetres long.
After one year the baby spins a cocoon and changes into a winged adult.
The adults fly in summer, from June to August, and come to lights at night.
Most asked questions about Four-spotted antlion
?Is an antlion a dragonfly?
No. It just looks like one. Antlions have clubbed feelers, and dragonflies do not.
?What does an antlion eat?
Its baby hunts small insects and other tiny creatures in the sand, using its powerful jaws.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Distoleon tetragrammicus
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Myrmeleontidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Neuroptera > Myrmeleontidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Distoleon tetragrammicus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Syrio. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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