By Dirley Cortés
“In its belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a… thousand years.” – C-3PO Jabba the Hutt.
The Star Wars’ carnivorous creature Sarlacc from the epic Great Pit of Carkoon battle (Planet Tatooine) in “Return of the Jedi: Ep 6” is not that far from the truth. Sarlacc has a trap in which skywalker is placed into. An antlion larva (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) has perhaps the most exciting pit digging behavior provided by a hole engineering from which that scene was probably inspired.
Thus, bearing ambush tactics, the antlion larva lays pit-fall traps in sand/soil of 1-2 inches deep/width for small-sized arthropods to fall into it while patiently nestling underground. When feeling a disturbance, this hidden and tiny insect gets alert and carefully emerge their long and powerful mandibles slightly over the center of the pit.
There are three scenarios in which insects such as small ants may be involved in that scene:
First (conditioned freedom), an ant walks on the surface and passes really close around risking its life, but ending up entirely free for it did not fall into. Just like in Starwars, Jabba the Hutt attempts to drop Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca into the multi-tentacled beast. This time, Skywalker frees himself and the rest of them.
In a second scenario (conditioned break), an ant hangs out nearby and suddenly fall into one of those traps. If lucky, it escapes from a terrifying predator just climbing the steep side of that trap while it is being chased by the antlion with no success. In this case, the antlion would do its best effort to throw sand up toward the ant to pull down the ant once again into the pit. For that tiny ant, that is a huge avalanche. One more time, the ant does not give up, it climbs even more, even stronger and determinedly fighting face-to-face against the larva. Successfully for the already scared and tired ant, but unfortunately for the hungry and excited larva, this odyssey ends here, at least until a next and not far away from the trap.
In a more fascinating and tough scenario (becoming dinner), an ant unnoticeably falls into the trap being captured by the clever predator. Although it is not an easy task, that ant loses the fight giving the antlion the most desired banquet. By having a long tube, it secrets a paralytic venom full of enzymes that will slowly liquefy the ant. Once dinner is taken, a dried exoskeleton is now left.
Although cruel to many and dazzling to others, this is simply fascinating and fun to catch up!
*I have prepared a video including the above described three scenarios. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3O-iVSZWuo
**I noticed these traps for the first time during our expedition to BCI thanks to D. Gálvez who stopped by to explain it to me. There are many of those traps all over the BCI station, so J. Scott encouraged me to take some videos!
STRI'S TROPICAL BIOLOGY FIELD COURSE 