Acanthaclisini

Adult Acanthaclisini can be distinguished from other antlion tribes by a combination of wing venation patterns and genitalic structures, though specific characters vary by genus. Larvae are notable for lacking the conical pitfall traps characteristic of Myrmeleontini; instead, they possess elongated bodies adapted for burrowing and active predation in loose sand.

Larvae inhabit open tracts of fairly deep, loose sand. The substrate must be sufficiently deep to allow thermoregulation, predator avoidance, and subterranean hunting. This habitat requirement restricts them to sandy areas such as dunes, riverbanks, and other alluvial deposits with deep, uncompacted sand layers.

Larvae are predatory, hunting both on the soil surface and beneath it. Specific prey taxa have not been comprehensively documented for the tribe as a whole.

Larvae undergo development in sandy substrates without constructing pitfall traps. Details of pupation and adult emergence have not been documented at the tribal level.

Larvae are active hunters rather than sit-and-wait predators. They burrow beneath the sand surface and pursue prey both above and below ground. This represents a fundamentally different foraging strategy from the pitfall-trapping behavior seen in many other antlion groups.

As predators in sandy ecosystems, larvae contribute to invertebrate population regulation in habitats where deep sand limits the establishment of many other predatory arthropods.

• MyrmeleontiniLarvae of Myrmeleontini construct conical pitfall traps in sand to capture prey, whereas Acanthaclisini larvae actively hunt without building pits.

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