Antlion

The Antlion is an enemy found in Deserts during the day and in Underground Deserts. It remains stationary with its head sticking out of the ground, and will shoot sand projectiles at the player every 3.33 seconds when they are in its line of sight. It can only launch its projectile at an upwards angle (within about 45 degrees to the left and right), so players approaching from lower ground are usually out of its line of fire. The sand projectiles turn into clumps of Sand Blocks when hitting an object, and will gather on the ground, similarly to the projectiles fired by the Sandgun.

On the, the Albino Antlion variant also appears.

Trivia

 * The Antlion is based on real-life larvae, which dig sand pits as traps for other insects. The antlion will throw sand at escaping prey, causing its victims to tumble down into the center of the pit where the hungry antlion is waiting. When the larvae grow up, they resemble the Antlion Swarmer.
 * Due to the large presence of Antlion enemies in the Underground Desert and its funnel-like entry point, it could be assumed that the Underground Desert is in fact a large Antlion nest.
 * The NPC ID image contains only the head. The body is stored not by an ID, but rather by its name, AntlionBody.xnb.
 * While the projectile itself does not do any damage to enemies, any falling sand that the Antlion places can damage other enemies, not just the player.
 * Antlion is commonly mispronounced as antillion, when, since it is based on the insect, it can be assumed that one would pronounce it the same as the insect – ant-lion.
 * This is one of only two or three creatures besides the player that can place blocks in the world, the others being the Snow Balla and, debatably, the Wall of Flesh.