History Main / AntlionMonster

* ''VideoGame/SpinMaster'' for the UsefulNotes/NeoGeo has a giant antlion lurking in a [[QuicksandSucks desert quicksand pit]].
* ''VideoGame/StriderArcade'': The UsefulNotes/PCEngine version has a giant antlion as the mid-boss of the ShiftingSandLand stage.

* ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog28Bit Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'': The first boss for the UsefulNotes/GameGear and UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem is a Robotic Antlion. To defeat it, Sonic must dodge the cannonballs that Robotnik throws at him so that they will hit the Robotic Antlion. Eventually, Robotnik flies down at Sonic and Sonic must dodge him as well so Robotnik will inadvertently deliver the final hit. This boss is harder in the Game Gear version due to the reduced amount of space on the screen.

* ''Literature/TheMoomins'': An antlion appears in ''The Moomins and the Great Flood'', ''Finn Family Moomintroll'', and the 90's anime series ''Anime/TanoshiiMuminIkka''. In this case the antlion is a black [[VisualPun lion-like]] creature that digs {{Pit Trap}}s at a beach.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Trapinch is an antlion-based Pokèmon that waits in its hole to capture prey, and like its RealLife counterpart, evolves into a dragonfly-like creature. Its Arena Trap ability prevents grounded enemies[[labelnote:*]]minus Ghost types as of Generation VI[[/labelnote]] from escaping.

** The same book introduces the Dust Digger, a Sarlaac-like creature that possessed similar ambush tactics, but modified with the additional ability to create mirages to lure prey.
** The long-term creature the ankheg (present in nearly every version) could be considered to be a subversion -- it physically resembles an antlion nymph, even down to having venomous (or acidic) jaws -- but does not create a cone or trap its prey, instead acting as a roving underground predator.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarI'': antlion nests block your path on planet Motavia, until you get the Landrover to travel over them. (But the antlion's battle sprite looks like a spider, being a palette swap of Tarantul.)

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': As seen in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' and ''Film/TheBookOfBobaFett'', the Sarlacc is a plant-like monster whose body is mostly buried underground, exposing only a beaklike mouth and a set of tentacles at the bottom of a steep pit.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': The Sarlacc is a plant-like monster whose body is mostly buried underground, exposing only a beaklike mouth and a set of tentacles at the bottom of a steep pit.

* TropeMaker: The antlion larva, of course. It wedges itself backward into sand, and then uses its head and mandibles to dig. Slowly it creates a funnel-shaped trap, with it at the center. And then it digs into the sand and waits. When something (usually an ant) falls into the funnel, the ant tries to get out, but the sand being loose, it begins to slide, preventing the ant from climbing it. [[YouWillNotEvadeMe So the ant lion tosses sand at it in order to increase the sandslide]], and to bring it down to it. That's when the antlion grabs it with its large, serrated mandibles, injects poison into it that liquefies the insides (it can't actually ''eat'' in the normal sense), and then sucks the ant dry. So yeah, it deserves the title of "monster". Though it is utterly harmless to humans and it is actually quite gentle when not inside a pit, because by the time it's out, it's already a damselfly-like adult insect and looks like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmeleon_formicarius#/media/File:Myrmeleon_formicarius_(9564014813).jpg this]], not like [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antlion#/media/File:Myrmeleontidae_(antlion)_5370350.jpg this]].

* TropeMaker: The antlion larva, of course. It wedges itself backward into sand, and then uses its head and mandibles to dig. Slowly it creates a funnel-shaped trap, with it at the center. And then it digs into the sand and waits. When something (usually an ant) falls into the funnel, the ant tries to get out, but the sand being loose, it begins to slide, preventing the ant from climbing it. [[YouWillNotEvadeMe So the ant lion tosses sand at it in order to increase the sandslide]], and to bring it down to it. That's when the antlion grabs it with its large, serrated mandibles, injects poison into it that liquefies the insides (it can't actually ''eat'' in the normal sense), and then sucks the ant dry. So yeah, it deserves the title of "monster". Though it is utterly harmless to humans and it is actually quite gentle when not inside a pit, because by the time it's out, it's already a damselfly-like adult insect and looks like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmeleon_formicarius#/media/File:Myrmeleon_formicarius_(9564014813).jpg this]], not like [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myrmeleontidae_(antlion)_5370350.jpg this]].

* TropeMaker: The antlion larva, of course. It wedges itself backward into sand, and then uses its head and mandibles to dig. Slowly it creates a funnel-shaped trap, with it at the center. And then it digs into the sand and waits. When something (usually an ant) falls into the funnel, the ant tries to get out, but the sand being loose, it begins to slide, preventing the ant from climbing it. [[YouWillNotEvadeMe So the ant lion tosses sand at it in order to increase the sandslide]], and to bring it down to it. That's when the antlion grabs it with its large, serrated mandibles, injects poison into it that liquefies the insides (it can't actually ''eat'' in the normal sense), and then sucks the ant dry. So yeah, it deserves the title of "monster". Though it is utterly harmless to humans and it is actually quite gentle when not inside a pit, because by the time it's out, it's already a damselfly-like adult insect and looks like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmeleon_formicarius#/media/File:Myrmeleon_formicarius_(9564014813).jpg this]], not like [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Myrmeleon_formicaria_2.JPG this]].

* [[VideoGame/DontStarve Don't Starve Together]] has an antlion giant that appears during summer in the desert. Players have 3 options when it appears: appease it with items fished from the oasis, ignore it and deal with the periodic sinkhole/cave-in it causes, or fight it.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'': The first boss for the UsefulNotes/GameGear and UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem is a Robotic Antlion. To defeat it, Sonic must dodge the cannonballs that Robotnik throws at him so that they will hit the Robotic Antlion. Eventually, Robotnik flies down at Sonic and Sonic must dodge him as well so Robotnik will inadvertently deliver the final hit. This boss is harder in the Game Gear version due to the reduced amount of space on the screen.