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NOTES UPON THE FORMICIDJE OF MACKAY, 

 QUEENSLAND. 



By Gilbert Turner. 



I have been induced to record these notes, made while collecting 

 ants from their nests, and observing them at large in the vicinity 

 of my home (about fifteen miles west of the town) in the hope 

 that they may be of interest to entomologists who are not so 

 favourably situated, or who only know the species from cabinet 

 collections. 



I am enabled to do this through the kindness of Professor Aug. 

 Forel, of Zurich, who has identified my specimens, described some 

 of the new species, and given me a great deal of information 

 about the distribution and habits of Ants in other countries. 



To give some idea of the richness of ant life in this district I 

 append a list of 1 40 species collected, many of which are common. 



This part of the country is divisible into " forest," that is 

 is grass land more or less thickly timbered, the prevailing 

 trees on which are some half-dozen species of eucalypts : 

 and " scrub," which only occurs on the hills, and in narrow 

 belts along the watercourses ; no grass grows upon this sort of 

 country, which is very thickly timbered, and is sometimes almost 

 impenetrable from the abundance of vines and climbing plants. 



Ants are far more numerous in the forest than they are in the 



scrub lands, because in the former those species which frequent 



the ground can get an abundance of light and sunshine in which 



to air their jDupte, whereas in the latter the foliage of the trees 



forms such a dense shade, that very little direct sunshine can 



reach the ground or indeed penetrate beyond the tangled foliage 



above. It is remarkable how very few species frequent the trees 



in the scrub, but this is probably owing to the great numbers of 

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