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Terrestrial Invertebrates
Euroleon nostras (Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785)
Nomenclature
Species:
Euroleon nostras (Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785)
Usage:
valid
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Synonyms: 8
SUMMARY
Occasional Ant-lions have appeared in Britain, presumably blown over from continental Europe for many years, but the first record of breeding was made on the Suffolk coast in the mid-1990s. Ten years later a colony became established at Holkham and and has continued to thrive. The larvae excavate pits in loose sand and remail at the bottom. When insects moving over the sand surface encounter a pit they tumble down its slopes into the jaws of the ant-lion larva at the bottom. The flimsy damselfly-like adult ant-lion is rarely seen and flies to the top of trees soon after emerging where it mates and feeds on pollen.
Text: Andrew Bloomfield