132 NOTES UPON THE FORillCID^-E OF MACKAY, 



With the exception of two of these species that sometimes 

 range into tlie scrub, all of them are confined to the forest lands; 

 they usually make their nests in the ground under logs or stones, 

 but some species, though naturally subterranean in their habits, 

 sometimes depart from the general rule and construct their homes 

 in hollow trees. 



Camponotus infrepidiis, Kirby, makes its nest in the ground, 

 forming a conical mound about a foot in height and eighteen 

 inches in diameter at the base; the earth is excavated from the 

 galleries below, which form the main part of the nest, but the 

 raised dome above it is full of irregular chambers in which 

 numbers of males, females and pupte as well as workers are 

 living in the early summer. These ants seem to form colonies, as 

 their nests are generally found in groups of two or three to some- 

 times a dozen within a radius of twenty yards. 



I have only succeeded in obtaining a complete series of 

 specimens of the following five species : the males and females of 

 Camponotus ceneopilosus^ Mayr, are plentiful in the nests in 

 October and November; those of C. novce-hollandicB, Mayr, in the 

 latter month, and those of C. dorycus, Sm., var. confiisus^ Em., 

 C niyriceps, Sm., and its variety C. dimuUatns, Rog., towards 

 the end of December and January; but the time of the appear- 

 ance of the sexes depends a good deal upon the season. 



The genus Polyrhacliis is i-epresented by no less than twenty- 

 five species, in addition to which there are some seven or eight 

 varieties or races; many of the members of this genus are remark- 

 able for the beauty of their colours and symmetrical form. 



Among these Professor Forel found ten new species*, most of 

 the varieties unknown. Another species, Polyrhachis dives, Sm.^ 

 also identified by him, very common in tropical Asia, has been 

 found by me for the first time in Australia. 



This group of ants are both arboreal and terrestrial in their 

 nesting habits; the nests of eleven species are always found in the 

 ground, many of which are variable in their construction even in 



• Ann. Sue. Ent. Belar. Vol. xxxix. 1895. 



