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First published online August 30, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 3510-3515 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02401

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Efficiency of antlion trap construction

Arnold Fertin^* and Jérôme Casas

Université de Tours, IRBI UMR CNRS 6035, Parc Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: arnold.fertin{at}etu.univ-tours.fr)

Accepted 21 June 2006

Assessing the architectural optimality of animal constructions is in most cases extremely difficult, but is feasible for antlion larvae, which dig simple pits in sand to catch ants. Slope angle, conicity and the distance between the head and the trap bottom, known as off-centring, were measured using a precise scanning device. Complete attack sequences in the same pits were then quantified, with predation cost related to the number of behavioural items before capture. Off-centring leads to a loss of architectural efficiency that is compensated by complex attack behaviour. Off-centring happened in half of the cases and corresponded to post-construction movements. In the absence of off-centring, the trap is perfectly conical and the angle is significantly smaller than the crater angle, a physical constant of sand that defines the steepest possible slope. Antlions produce efficient traps, with slopes steep enough to guide preys to their mouths without any attack, and shallow enough to avoid the likelihood of avalanches typical of crater angles. The reasons for the paucity of simplest and most efficient traps such as theses in the animal kingdom are discussed.

Key words: animal construction, antlion pit, sit-and-wait predation, physics of sand, psammophily

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Fertin and J. Casas Orientation towards prey in antlions: efficient use of wave propagation in sand J. Exp. Biol., October 1, 2007; 210(19): 3337 - 3343. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]