BY GILBERT TURNER. 131 



Stony pockets of forest land running up into the scrub, and 

 .stony ridges near the jungle seem to be most favoured by the ants; 

 the land in these places is usually poor and thinly covered with 

 grass, and eveiy log or stone protects one or more of their nests; 

 this land is drier than the surrounding country and is seldom 

 visited by an animal larger than a wallaby, which keeps to its 

 beaten track, so that the ant-nests are seldom disturbed. 



Among the larger ants Camponotus novce-lwllandke, Mayr, 

 Zieptomyrmex er if tliroceplialus, Fab., and Myrmecia nigrocincta., 

 Mayr, are very plentiful, and appear to be about equally distri- 

 buted in both the forest and the scrub, and the same may be 

 said of one or two of the smaller species. 



A fact worth mentioning in connection with this point is, that 

 of three species, PolyrJiacliis Icevior, Rog., Pheidole proxima, 

 Mayr, and an undescribed Cremastogaster, which I have only 

 found in the forest, there are new varieties or races which are only 

 found in the scrub. Another species, Pheidole variahilis, Mayr, 

 common in the forest, always forms its nest on the ground under 

 logs or stones, but there is a new variety of this species found 

 both in the scrub and forest which always builds its nest in 

 cavities in living trees, or in rotten timber lying on the ground; 

 this is the only species of this genus that in this district does not 

 make its nest on the ground. 



Out of twelve species confined to the scrub. Professor Forel 

 determined seven to be new; two others new varieties of described 

 species, the typical forms of which have not yet been found here; 

 two species have not yet been determined, and the remaining one 

 is the widely distributed (Ecopliijlla smaragdina. It is thei'efore 

 evident that the scrub has hitherto not been so closely hunted 

 over by collectors as the forest, and even with my opportunities 

 for collecting in it, I know that a great deal remains to be clone 

 in this class of country. 



The genus Camponotms is represented by fifteen species, one of 

 which when submitted to Profess*or Forel was found to be new, 

 and another which had been wrongly named has since been 

 described by him.* 



* Ann. SoG. Ent. Belg. Vol. xxxi.K. 1895. 



