Campbell Vaughn: Doodlebug hole brings back fond childhood memories
Sometimes you see things that brings back fond memories. I was on a trip with some of my family a few weekends ago to the coast and had to get a key to the house in a hiding place. I looked down in the fine sand and noticed a colony of funnel shaped holes. It immediately brought me back to when I was 6 years old under my treehouse and some older kid was showing me about the doodlebugs that created these funnel holes.
"Doodlebug! Doodlebug! Come out of your hole! Your house is on fire and your children are gone!"
That was a popular rhyme to sing to the burrowing insect that was waiting at the bottom for an ant to slip up and slide into his trap. We would get a piece of pine straw and gently poke at the bottom of the hole trying get the little insect to strike.
The doodlebug is also called an ant-lion. During the larval stage of metamorphosis, the doodlebug builds these pits that are the shape of an inverted cone. The pits are found in dry places that are sheltered from exposure to high winds, rains and intense sunlight.
Pits are often constructed under the shelter of farm buildings or beneath a 6-year-old’s treehouse on McClure Drive. The doodlebug works its way around in a circle throwing the sand outside the cone until they have a pit about 1 to 2 inches in diameter and about the same depth.
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The ant-lion larva waits under the loose sand at the bottom of its pit for an ant or other small insect to slip and fall down the side. The unsuspecting prey falls to the center of the pit and into the waiting jaws of the ant-lion larva.
The victim will often attempt to scramble up the steeply inclined walls of the pit in a desperate effort to escape. The larva quickly flicks showers of loose sand, which further destabilizes the wall and down comes the meal of the day.
These larvae are nasty looking creatures. They have a broad, flattened body, short legs for crawling backward and a flat head with long, sickle-shaped mandibles. The doodlebug also has the ability to subdue prey much larger than itself due to its entire body being covered in stiff, forward pointing bristles that helps anchor it to the sand while countering the fleeing efforts of its prey.
Ant-lion larvae eventually pupate in the soil. Adults resemble dragonflies that fold its wings back in a tent-like fashion while resting. Adults are rarely encountered in the wild because they are primarily active in the evening. During the day, ant-lions rest and are usually motionless and quite well-camouflaged by their transparent wings and brownish body.
It might bring back some good childhood memories next time you have a chance to see a doodlebug hole. Maybe have a little fun by showing a kid how to get an ant-lion to strike just like the childhood neighbor did for me a long time ago.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Campbell Vaughn has fond memories of learning about doodlebugs
