Categories

Not your average South Carolina Doodle Bug!!!!
Hi Guys!
My 6 year old Daughter Laura has found what appears to be a gigantic ant lion larva! I didn’t have a scale to put next to it (I must get one for this purpose) but it was a little more than 3/4" long and looked just like a typical "doodle bug" yet huge and with some additional frilliness around the edges . She found it out in the open on the stone border of our backyard flower bed. We are located along the southern coast of South Carolina and have an unusually large assortment of backyard wildlife for our little bug lover to observe. In the photo its on its back with its head bent toward its belly in an attempt to turn over… the legs did not extend outside the outline of the body and weren’t much good for turning over but they could grip very well even on smooth paper. We photographed this critter and Laura carefully returned it to the spot where she found it. In 42 years of digging in the dirt I’ve never seen an ant lion larva so large. After looking all thru your site, we saw the more typical ant lion larva and the super sized adult ant lions, but nothing in the larva department which seemed this large. Also, thank you for your diligent detective work several years back when you identified my very scary looking, yet ultimately harmless, male Southern Crevice spider. Your site has provided many educational opportunities for Laura and she was thrilled (with a little help from Daddy) to identify an assassin bug she found a few weeks ago! Since the Crevice spider ID, just about all spiders and other critters have been carefully escorted out of the house under Laura’s careful supervision. No unnecessary carnage here! best regards,
Kert , Liz and Laura Huggins

Dear Kert, Liz and Laura,
We suspect that you have been finding younger Doodlebugs in the garden and this specimen may be getting ready to pupate. We found a photo on BugGuide with a ruler that approximates the size of your Antlion Larva.

Possible Correction: (05/14/2008) WTB correction
Daniel:
I have a minor potential correction, sorry: The “doodlebug” may be something even more exciting. While it could be the larva of one of the giant antlions like Glenurus gratus, it is more likely the larva of a related insect, an owlfly (family Ascalaphidae). Instead of making pits like some antlion larvae, the larvae of owlflies lie in ambush just under the surface of the soil, or even out in the open on foliage. Neat find!
Eric

Related Posts

1. Owlfly from Australia (February 27, 2007)
2. Antlion (July 27, 2006)
3. Possibly Owlfly Larva from Thailand (November 26, 2005)
4. Owlfly (June 15, 2005)
5. Doodlebug (July 6, 2004)