{"id":14892,"date":"2025-09-30T10:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=14892"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:41:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:11:26","slug":"antlions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/antlions\/","title":{"rendered":"Antlions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Antlions Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers recently discovered two new species of antlions named Indophanes keralaensis and Indophanes sahyadriensis belonging to the family Myrmeleontidae under the order Neuroptera.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Antlions<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Antlions are a group of about <\/span><b>2,000 different species of insects.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They belong to a <\/span><b>family <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called <\/span><b>Myrmeleontidae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are named for the <\/span><b>predatory nature of the larvae,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which commonly <\/span><b>trap ants and <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">other<\/span><b> small insects in pits dug into the ground.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Adult antlions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are not as well known. They <\/span><b>live for a shorter time<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than the larvae.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adult antlions, sometimes <\/span><b>called antlion lacewings,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> usually<\/span><b> fly at dusk or after dark.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People sometimes<\/span><b> mistake them for dragonflies or damselflies.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Habitat and Distribution:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Antlions live <\/span><b>all over the world.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most types are found in<\/span><b> warm, tropical places.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But<\/span><b> some species,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like the European Euroleon nostras, live <\/span><b>in colder areas.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They often live in <\/span><b>dry, sandy places.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This is where their<\/span><b> larvae can easily dig their traps.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However,<\/span><b> some larvae hide under leaves <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or other bits of nature. They wait to ambush their prey there.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They come in <\/span><b>various shapes and sizes,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with <\/span><b>larvae <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">typically measuring from a <\/span><b>few millimeters to several centimeters,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> depending on the species.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Antlion <\/span><b>larvae have<\/b> <b>rounded bodies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with <\/span><b>long sickle-shaped jaws<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The larvae are found at the <\/span><b>base of cone-shaped pits<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in sandy areas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>In North America<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, these <\/span><b>larvae <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are sometimes <\/span><b>called doodlebugs.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This is because of the <\/span><b>wiggly marks they leave in the sand.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They usually r<\/span><b>emain in the larval stage for one to two years<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, depending on the species.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once they pupate, they require up to one month to complete their development.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Antlions are <\/span><b>harmless <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and cause no damage to flowers, people, or structures.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are highly <\/span><b>beneficial and feed on ants and other insects <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that fall into their traps.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/two-new-antlion-species-discovered-from-kerala\/article70105038.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Antlions are a group of about 2,000 different species of insects. Read more about Antlions, Discovery, Habitat, Diet, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":65856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2990],"class_list":{"0":"post-14892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-antlions","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}