Antlion Cone Death Trap | The Hunt | BBC Earth

The Namib Desert, one of the most exposed places on Earth. As the sun climbs high, everybody takes cover from the extreme heat. Everybody except the hotrod ant. As others take refuge, their day is just beginning... cleaning out the nest. The sand can reach a scorching 70 centigrade. The ants' long legs raise their bodies above the surface, where it's ten degrees cooler. But if they stand still, they will fry. They must keep moving or risk the same fate as their quarry, the creatures that have collapsed from heat stroke. Too deeply buried, but a good place to cool off. Foraging decisions must be fast. Too big... Perfect. Back to the nest before they also die. But they've strayed into a minefield. Each of these strange, cone-shaped pits is a death-trap... with a brutal predator at its centre. Here lie antlion larvae... tiny ambush predators with venom-filled pincers. Some ants manage to escape, but the antlion has other tricks. Flinging sand into the air, it creates an avalanche. In this cone of death, the walls are so angled that the sand slips beneath the ant's feet. As boulders rain from the sky, escape seems almost impossible. Phew!

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 9,105,608

Rating: 4.9234662 out of 5

Keywords: BBC, BBC Worldwide, Nature, Natural History, Animals, Wildlife, Wild, The Hunt, David Attenborough, Ant, Desert, Escape, Insect, Documentary, bbc documentary, ants, antlion, attack, predator, insect, insect battle, versus, desert, animals, natural history

Id: QSYpWaFsIRY

Length: 3min 34sec (214 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Tillerino]

Oh my. The production value on that was insane.

[u/fatchad420]

Picture of Antlion Larva Outside of Sand

[u/baitboy3191]

I love the ant in the end looks back as it just gets out like "fuck you man"

[u/Freezy3]

Hothothothothot, oh shitshitshitshit. Whew.

[u/Doofangoodle]

What is this? A Sarlacc for ants?

[u/trvemetalwarrior]

Funny to see how far these creatures can spread, especially if they're more at home in a Namibian desert. I was in northern Sweden just a couple of weeks ago and I saw similar conical pits near a beach. The ground was sandy but littered with pine needles and cones.

I wasn't thinking antlions, or couldn't even remember they exist right away, especially this far north, but the number and homogeneity of the pits stirred my memory so I caught an ant on a plant stalk and shook it off into one of the pits. There was sand spraying immediately and the ant was fighting for its life but I guess it was dead fairly quickly.

It was a cool experience but I felt a little bad for the ant. Also taught me to not walk barefoot near any pits like that even though the pincers might not be able to pierce the skin.

[u/TIGERshanked]

Gordan Freeman

[u/adamxftl]

Watching the ant struggle up the slope gave me anxiety

[u/MrColes]

Does anyone else remember the antlions from Sim Ant? http://i.imgur.com/YOc95se.gif