The Antlion (Swedish: Myrlejonet) is a large feline creature who dwells in a large sandy pit on Moominvalley's beach. He is a predator and threatens to eat people who fall into his traps.
The Antlion first appears in The Moomins and the Great Flood, where he continuously throws sand at Moominmamma when she, Moomintroll, Sniff and Tullipa doesn't leave his beach.
In Finn Family Moomintroll, the same Antlion now resides in a hole on Moominvalley's beach. To try out the effects of the Hobgoblin's hat, Moomintroll and the Snork trick the Antlion into going inside the hat as revenge for throwing sand at Moominmamma. As a result, the hat's magic transforms the Antlion into a hedgehog, and he is not seen again after this.
Trivia[]
- The Antlion is heavily based on a real-life insect of the same name. Despite this, he doesn't closely resemble real antlions in appearance, and has a design that takes the name more literally.
- Real life antlions are dragonfly-like insects with slender bodies and large wings. Their name comes from the predatory behavior of their larvae, which dig pits of loose substrate and wait for other insects (particularly ants) to fall into their enlarged mandibles.
- In the 1969 anime, the Antlion is omitted entirely, with Stinky briefly taking over his role instead.