HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



8i 



coloured legs, and without the spur, on the last joint 

 but two of the hind leg. 



4. Arraiurus novtis. — This mite, which I have 

 never seen figured or described, is a very beautiful 

 one, and retains its form (and, to some extent, its 

 colour) when mounted in balsam, without pressure. 

 Nothing short of a coloured figure could give any 

 adequate idea of its beauty, under the microscope. 

 The tail part is very characteristic, the central line 

 being dark, but the curved process on either side is 

 of glassy transparency, the last joint but two of the 

 hind leg is quite destitute of the spur so highly 

 developed in the two first-described mites. 



C. F. George. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN 

 ENTOMOLOGY. 



By W. T. Greene, M.D., F.Z.S., Author of 

 " Parrots in Captivity," &c. 



{(Oontinued from page 33.] 



THAT Australia is a land of paradoxes — a reputa- 

 tion it has long enjoyed — could not, I think, be 

 better exemplified than by a comparison between the 

 spiders of our own country and those that are most 

 commonly to be met with at our antipodes ; where 

 (reversing the, to us, natural order of things) the fly 

 preys upon the spider, and not the spider on the fly. 



A man I once knew on the goldfields used to be 

 greatly annoyed by a loud, intermittent buzzing in his 

 hut, and, for a long time, was quite unable to trace it 

 to its source ; one day, however, he discovered that 

 it was caused by a large black fly, marked with bright 

 yellow transverse bars on its body, that had taken up 

 its abode underneath his table, and a queer abode it 

 was, as I can testify, for I was by when it was dis- 

 covered and broken up. 



Upon examining the table, as soon as it had been 

 found out whence the wearisome noise proceeded, 

 on its under surface was discovered a large patch of 

 tenacious yellow clay that must have been brought 

 from a distance, as nothing at all resembling it in 

 appearance was to be found in the neighbourhood. 

 Upon breaking up this patch, it was found to be 

 hollow, and to consist of several chambers — sixteen, as 

 well as I remember — each filled up with a number of 

 ■small spiders of various kinds, not dead, but paralysed 

 and incapable of motion ; and, in addition, each cell 

 contained a grub, or egg, presumably of the fly- 

 architect ; the spiders, evidently, being a provision 

 laid up for her offspring, whilst in their immature 

 itate, by their provident and industrious parent. 



Australia contains prodigious numbers of ants of 

 ■every hue and colour. Some huge monsters, of a 

 bright red hue, are nearly two inches in length, and 

 are, very appropriately, named " soldiers " : there 

 are black ants, too, of equal size, which are as appro- 



priately denominated "niggers;" both kinds are 

 armed with a formidable sting, fully a quarter of an 

 inch in length ; and wage a perpetual war against 

 each other. The wound they inflict with the caudal 

 appendage is immediately fatal to the small creatures 

 that constitute their natural prey, and exquisitely 

 painful to man and the larger animals. 



Other ants are so minute as to be barely perceptible 

 to the naked eye, and, like their colossal congeners, 

 are red and black, but, unlike them, are devoid ot 

 stings, and have an outrageous passion for sugar. 

 Between fhese extremes there are ants of every size, 

 all more or less objectionable to the human denizens 

 of the country. 



One species, which is extremely active, is about 

 half an inch in length, black, with a strange pair of 

 yellow jaws, in the use of which the owner is very 

 expert, as well as with an extremely formidable 

 sting. It is so ferocious as to have received the name 

 of "bull-dog ant" from the colonists, which is 

 singularly well bestowed ; for once it has fastened on 

 a foe, the death of the victim will alone cause it to 

 release its hold ; for even when crushed to atoms 

 itself the sting and nippers remain pertinaciously 

 fixed in the wounds. A new arrival who should 

 chance to sit down on the nest of these creatures 

 would have cause to remember it— it is not a com- 

 fortable seat. 



There is a terrible story current among the "old 

 hands" of the colony concerning these formidable 

 insects, to the effect that in the early days of the 

 penal settlement in New South Wales, some bush- 

 rangers had suspicions, whether well grounded or not, 

 that one of their companions was playing them false, 

 and reporting their proceedings to the police ; on 

 this unfortunate a drum-head court martial (if I may 

 use the expression) was one day held, and he was 

 sentenced unanimously, by his " pals," to be tied to 

 a bull-dog nest, and there left to his fate. 



That this atrocious deed was actually perpetrated 

 there can be no manner of doubt ; for some months 

 afterwards the skeleton of a man was discovered in 

 the bush, still bound to a stake that had been driven 

 into the centre of the heap of sand, small stones, twigs 

 and fragments of grass-stems that go to make up the 

 residence of these terrible and much-dreaded insects ; 

 and, moreover, if I mistake not, one of the party 

 subsequently made a full confession of the crime, and 

 his own participation in it. These ants will anatomise 

 a snake, or a small bird, that has been placed near 

 their habitation, in the most beautiful manner, leaving 

 nothing but the bones, and these as white as snow ; 

 but, notwithstanding their talent in this respect, the 

 bull-dogs are decidedly objectionable neighbours. 



Another variety of ant, rather smaller than that 

 just mentioned, and of a dull brick-red colour, has a 

 head nearly half the length of its body, which is 

 armed with a pair of the most formidable-looking 

 nippers possible, which, however, are perfectly harm 



