THE MARRIAGE-FLIGHT OF A BULL-DOG ANT 71 



mounds are covered with a thin layer of bits of charred wood, 

 dead leaves, twigs and pebbles collected by the ants. The 

 entrance to the nest is a rather small hole, scarcely more than 

 half or three quarters of an inch in diameter and usually situ- 

 ated on one of the slopes near but not at the summit. 



Each nest contains about 200 to 500 workers. These are 

 subopaque, rich brownish red in color, with the gaster shining 

 black, and vary considerably in size, from 12 to 28 mm. The 

 females measure 26 to 28 mm., the males 18 to 20 mm. The 

 smallest workers, not exceeding 12 to 15 mm. in length, function 

 as door-keepers and are usually found stationed just within the 

 nest-entrance, with their long, scissor-like mandibles directed 

 outward. When the nest is disturbed these small workers are 

 the first to sally forth, followed by others of the same or medium 

 size, and it is only somewhat later that the huge and formidable 

 individuals, measuring 25 to 28 mm. advance to the attack with 

 wide open jaws and threatening sting. This behavior is the 

 reverse of that observed in other ants (e. g. in species of Cam- 

 ponotus, Colobopsis, Atta, Pheidole, etc.), the major workers or 

 soldiers of which act as door-keepers and are among the first to 

 rush to the defence of the colony. Unlike the puny, small-eyed 

 ants of our northern latitudes, the bull-dogs can clearly discern 

 objects at a distance of several feet with their great, prominent, 

 abundantly facetted eyes. They lose no time in running about 

 in all directions hunting for the intruder, but with ferocious 

 unanimity make directly for him. The extraordinary tenacity 

 with which they hold on with their mandibles to any moving 

 object that comes in their path is, of course, responsible for 

 their popular name, but no one has been able to suggest a polite 

 epithet that will do justice to the virulence of their sting. 



At the time of my visit to Salisbury Court, during the last 

 week of November, there were no winged males or females in 

 the nests, though there were plenty of larvae and a small number 

 of worker pupae. This is rather surprising because the sexual 

 forms of most of the ants of New South Wales are to be found 

 in the nests during late October and early November. Mr. 

 Froggatt expressed the opinion that the males and females of 

 the various species of Myrmecia do not mature till January. 

 This opinion has been confirmed in a letter recently received, 

 in which he describes a remarkable marriage flight of sanguined 



