The Power of Playing Dead A study shows that pretending to be immobile — sometimes for an hour or more — helps larvae of insects called antlions outlast hungry predators. An antlion larva, not actually dead.Credit...Nigel R. Franks By Cara Giaimo March 7, 2021 Antlion larvae are famously ferocious: They dig pits in the sand to catch unsuspecting prey, stab it with their sharp mandibles and digest it from the inside out. But everything is relative. To their own predators, antlion larvae are simply little snacks. And a colony’s cunning traps, grouped together and quite visible in the sand, are like flashing “DRIVE-THRU” signs.