Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/251

LEFT ANTIUM 199 ANT LION the surface after they have passed the limits of the trade-winds, and form the S. W. or W. S. W. winds of the N. tem- perate, and the N. W. or W. N. W. winds of the S. temperate zones. It is the anti-trade winds that are most notable in the meteorology of the United States. ANTITJlff, a maritime city of Latium, now Porto d'Anzio, near Rome; after a long struggle for independence became a Roman colony, at the end of the great Latin war, 340-338 B. C. It is mentioned by Horace, and was a favorite retreat of the emperors and wealthy Romans. The treasures deposited in the Temple of Fortune here were taken by Octavius Caesar during his war with Antony, 41 B, C. ANTLERS, bony outgrowths from the frontal bones of almost all of the mem- bers of the deer family. Except in the reindeer, they are restricted to the males, and are secondary sexual characters used the year after that of birth, the antlers remain unbranched conical "beams." In the following spring, the previous growth ANTLERS OF AMERICAN RED DEER AT VARIOUS STAGES as weapons in fighting for possession of the females. They appear as a pair of knobs covered with dark skin, from which the bony tissue is developed. In ANTLERS OF MATURE ALASKAN MOOSE having been meanwhile shed, the antlers grow to a larger size, and from their first branch or "brow." Year by year the number of branches or tines increases, and more than 60 have been counted on some magnificent heads. The soft, hairy skin which secures their rapid annual growth is known as the "velvet," and its accidental injury affects the development of the antlers. Growth ceases when the blood-supply is cut off by the develop- ment of a tubercled burr at the base, and the deer then rub off the dry skin and leave the bone bare. The antlers are shed, in many cases at least, annually after the breeding period. ANTLIA, or ANTLIA PNET7MATICA, one of^ the 14 southern constellations placed in the heavens by Lacaille in con- nection with his work at the Cape of Good Hope in 1751-1752. It is situated between Vela, Pyxis, Hydra, and Cen- taurus. ANT LION, the larva of an insect {myrTneleon obsoletus, etc.) of the order of neuroptern, remarkable for its ingen- ious methods of capturing ants and other insects, on which it feeds, by mak- ing pitfalls in the sand. Some species are common in North America. The per- fect insect is about an inch long, and has a general resemblance to the dragon-fly. It feeds upon the juices of insects, espe- cially ants, in order to obtain which it cleverly excavates a funnel-shaped pitfall in sandy ground, and lies in wait at the bottom. When insects approach too near to the edge of the hole, the loose sand gives way, so that they fall down the steep slope. It they do not fall quite to the bottom, but begin to scramble up again, the ant-lion throws sand upon them by jerking his head, and thus brings them back. It employs its head in the same way to eject their bodies from its pit, after their juices have been sucked.