Antlion

When we leave the porch light on at night, a collection of familiar and not-so-familiar insects usually turns up to welcome us back. I read that there's been a dramatic drop in the number of insects all around the world. Dramatic and very worrying. But there's still a few in our porch.

Here's one from last night. I was a bit stumped at first, but it's an antlion lacewing, no less (Glenoleon falsus). Its larvae are predators with long jaws and pincers. They live in the ground and build sandtraps into which other insects fall and get eaten.

I used to play a computer game called SimAnt.My ants were always being eaten by antlions.