And here's another ant predator. It's Alvaro the Ant Lion! Some people call him "doodlebug." Many people see his little pit in the sand and have no idea what he looks like. He's only about half an inch long, but he's amazing-looking! A chubby body, a little head, and huge, pincer-like jaws. Alvaro waits patiently at the bottom of his pit for ants to fall in. When one does, he tosses sand on it to keep it from getting out. Then he grabs it with his jaws, pulls it under the sand, and sucks its juices out. Finally he tosses the dead ant out and goes to work making a new pit. Alvaro is not an adult yet, he is what zoologists call a larva. In other words, he is what a caterpillar is to a butterfly. Eventually he will make a little silk cocoon in the sand and transform into the delicate insect you see on the right. Isn't that cool?