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Photo#584573
Pupating antlion without the silken ball???

Pupating antlion without the silken ball???
Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, USA
September 27, 2011
I'm raising a few Antion Larva I found in fine dirt between the mulch under some trees in my yard! This one is pupating I guess, I was digging around trying to find it since it hadn't rebuilt its pit in a while. I dug around and found what looked like an antlion with a hunched back and slightly elongated abdomen. I assumed it was shedding it's larva skin and burried under a light layer of sand. (Also in the sand of its container was a lump of sand that seemed to be stuck to some sort of fine silk, but I didn't know what it was from. ) The next few times I checked on them, nothing, then suddenly this appeared on the surface.. I'm guessing I screwed up the larva when it was spinning a silk ball around itsself, but this pupa is alive and well, I kept it on the surface of the sand in its own small container. When I blow on it it sort of moves its head a little bit.

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Pupating antlion without the silken ball??? Pupating antlion without the silken ball??? Pupating antlion without the silken ball??? Pupating antlion without the silken ball??? Pupating antlion without the silken ball??? Pupating antlion without the silken ball??? Pupating antlion without the silken ball???

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

I don't think you screwed it up.
They spin the silk around themselves first, then pupate, because after they have pupated they are just enclosed in this exuvium and can't do anything until they emerge. Perhaps he didn't feel like spinning a cocoon, or maybe this is a species that doesn't do that. I don't know.

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