82 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



less, for their possessor neither bites nor stings, and is 

 the least objectionable member of the ant family with 

 which I came in contact during my travels through 

 the Australian bush. 



Another species is soft and white, and chiefly 

 inhabits decaying wood, from whence it is eagerly 

 picked by many kinds of birds ; the common poultry, 

 for instance, being especially partial to it, although 

 they will not touch the other kinds of ants. I do not 

 know how this species contrives to exist, as it never 

 appears to leave its home in some decaying log, either 

 by night or day. 



There are also red or reddish-purple ants, with 

 long feeble-looking legs, with which, however, their 

 owners contrive to run very fast. These creatures do 

 not sting, but, in common with several other varieties, 

 exhale a most disgusting odour when alarmed ; and, 

 as they have a great taste for sugar and sweet things 

 in general, they are rather unpleasant visitors in a 

 tent or hut ; not even the ingenuity they display in 

 getting at their prey compensating the poor bushman 

 for the damage done to his stores. 



In one place where I had been greatly plagued by 

 these depredators, I suspended a bag of sugar to the 

 ridge pole of the tent I was inhabiting at the time, 

 and went out, thinking it was quite secure from their 

 attack ; but on my return, some hours afterwards, I 

 found that a regular highway had been established 

 between my sugar bag and the nearest ant-hill, along 

 which some thousands of the long-legged inhabitants 

 were hurrying to and fro, carrying off my property as 

 fast as ever they could. Although much annoyed, I 

 could not forbear watching them for a moment, as 

 they struggled, heavily laden, up the string that 

 suspended the bag from the pole of the tent, stopping 

 every now and then to rest, and permit their de- 

 scending companions to pass lightly over their dis- 

 tended bodies. 



I next placed my sugar in a basin set in a saucer full 

 of water on the table, and thought it would be safe ; 

 but it was not : for the ants brought up little bits of 

 straw and grass, with which they formed bridges 

 across the gulf that separated them from the object of 

 their desires, which they then carried away in triumph. 



As a dernier ressorf, T placed the sugar basin in a 

 large tin plate full of water, forming a moat too wide 

 to be bridged over by the ingenious insects ; but they 

 were not to be outwitted, for they crawled up the 

 overhanging side of the tent and let themselves drop 

 on to the coveted sweets, where, however, they were 

 obliged to remain until I came in, when I put an end 

 to the thievish propensities of some hundreds of them 

 Ijy pitching the whole into the fire. 



The peppermint ants are little black creatures, 

 about a quarter of an inch in length, that generally 

 inhabit old decayed trees of the same name, from the 

 interior of which a tap or two on the bark will cause 

 them to emerge in countless myriads, tainting the air 

 around with the insufferable odour they exhale. These 



little pests are as fond of sweet things as those above 

 described, and are also very partial to meat, par- 

 ticularly when cooked ; I need scarcely add that 

 whatever they have touched is utterly unfitted after- 

 wards for human food. 



All the preceding kinds of ants are diurnal in their 

 habits, excepting the soft white variety, and retire to 

 their abodes with the setting of the sun ; but there 

 are nocturnal ants, too, and ghastly-looking beings 

 they are. 



The day ants are gregarious, and always hunt in 

 packs, but their nocturnal relatives are unsocial 

 creatures, and startle the digger, singly, as he sits at 

 his solitary tea, or reads his novel by candle-light, 

 after the day's work is done. They have black, 

 attenuated bodies, and long white legs ; they appear 

 mysteriously on the edge of the table, or the corner of 

 the book, lift up their antennae in a menacing manner, 

 and directly scuttle away out of sight ; they do not 

 seem to be a numerous tribe, but to me they were 

 more unwelcome even than the peppermint ants, 

 although they never did me any harm ; but I could 

 not fancy them "natural," and would as soon have 

 seen a tarantula at my board. 



Of the termites I do not speak, as they are restricted 

 to the far north, where I have never been, and so, 

 taking leave of the ants, I pass on to another species of 

 insect remarkable for the regularity of its appearance 

 and disappearance — the March fly, as it is called, 

 from invariably appearing on the first day of that 

 month, and as constantly retiring from observation on 

 or before the first day of April j after which latter 

 date I do not remember ever having seen one, 

 although thousands of them might have been visible 

 in every direction, only the day before. The March 

 fly is a sedate-looking, large eyed, black insect, with 

 longitudinal white stripes running the whole length 

 of its body ; it is quite a ferocious creature, fastening 

 with avidity on the face and hands of the colonist, 

 and inflicting a sharp puncture with its proboscis ; 

 but beyond the pain of the wound no harm is done, 

 as the creature instils no poison into the wound it 

 has made ; it is about the size of an English blue- 

 bottle. 



Scorpions and centipedes are among the most 

 unpleasant reminiscences of the traveller in the 

 Australian bush, for they are very dangerous 

 creatures, far more so than the tarantula, or giant 

 spider, of which I have already made mention, and 

 which is usually called the " triantelope " by the old 

 bush hands : in former times the shepherds not 

 unfrequently, for their own amusement, got up a duel 

 between a couple of these nasty insects, which 

 usually terminated in favour of the scorpion ; the 

 latter they often placed in the centre of a circle of 

 live embers, when the creature, finding escape 

 impossible, turned its tail over, and, stinging itself n 

 the back, would presently expire. 



The centipede lays its eggs at the beginning of the 



