The antlion and the armadillo have absolutely nothing in common except their names start with “A.”
But they both live here iin Costa Rica and they’re pretty interesting animals. The antlion is, as it’s name suggests, a ferocious creature that eats ants. It does this by digging a perfectly conical hole in soft ground. When an ant wanders by, a little too close to the edge and slips in (and there are a lot of ants around to fall in), it can’t get out do to the steep slippery slope and the antlion leaps from the sand at the bottom of the pit and grabs the ant. I love to take pictures of animals, and real nature photographers are a patient lot waiting sometimes weeks for the perfect shot. I am not that patient and did not get a photo of the actual antlion (even after trying to fool it with a tiny rock dropped into its pit) but I have the next best thing: a photo of its perfectly sculpted trap (with submerged antlion out of view at the bottom). These pits are all over the ground in areas of properly sized soil.
Armadillos even though they are strictly nocturnal, are easier to photograph (especially if your camara has a flash) because they grub around in the dry leaves looking for insects and there is one that lives in Marie’s garden and roots around in her plants nearly every night, much to her dismay. Itsy, the little dog, (see photo as reminder) loves to chase this cute thing but I usually discouraged her since I was always looking for a good photo of the little armored tank.
This one shows the strong front claws that the armadillo utilizes every night for digging and the pebbly texture of its plated skin. Sometimes armadillos become roadkill due to a particularly maladapted (for cars at least) defensive trait: when they are startled, they jump straight up in the air, two feet high or more which is unfortunately just about the same height as the front of most cars. If they laid low instead, they just might survive the vehicle encounter with no more than a momentary shadow above as they move about in their nightly search for dinner.
