BY WALTER AV. PROGGATT. 727 



longer than broad; median suture from the base merging into an 

 angular white patch in the centre of the forehead; clypeus divided 

 in the centre forming two rounded lobes, with a reddish spot on 

 the outer edge; labrum large, rounded in front; jaws small, with 

 two stout pointed teeth at the tip, tapering from the lower one 

 to an angular tooth in the centre of the jaws, broad at the base; 

 palpi slender. Prothorax small, truncate in front, sloping on the 

 sides to hind margin; abdomen broadly oval; cerci small, slender. 



Hab. — Palmerston, Port Darwin, IST.T. (from the nest; Mr. N. 

 Holtze; and Dr. Stirling, Adelaide Museum); North Queensland 

 (Mr. C. W. DeVis, Queensland Museum); Mackay, Queensland 

 (in dead logs; Mr. G. Turner); Moree, N.S.W. (in dead logs; Mr. 

 F. Miller). 



This is the species which constructs the remarkable "meri- 

 dional" or "magnetic nests " found from near the Bloorafield 

 River, North Queensland, to Palmerston, Port Darwin. I have 

 never had an opportunity of examining these peculiar structures 

 myself, but Mr. Dudley Le Soeuf informs me that they are found 

 a few miles off the Bloomfield River. He says* : — "Some distance 

 away from here, in the open country, the curious mounds of the 

 Termites, called the Meridian White Ants, are found, but I was 

 unable to visit them. They are said to build long narrow 

 structures, always running from east to west, and never to vary 

 from that direction." 



A short account of the form of these nests is given in the 

 Cambridge Natural History, Vol. v. p. 18, with a sketch from a 

 drawing by Mr. Walker. 



Mr. Holtze, who kindly sent me soldiers and workers taken 

 direct from the nests, though he was unable to find winged 

 insects or a queen, also sent me photographs of the nests with 

 the following notes :—" These nests average from 10 to 12 feet 

 in length in the form of a wall, convex on one side and concave 

 on the other, the sides respectively facing the rising and setting 



* "A Trip to North Queensland"; Victorian Naturalist, Vol. xi. 1894, 

 p. 25. 



