728 AUSTRALIAN TERMITID^f:, 



sun." He did not give me the exact width of the nests; but, 

 judging from the photographs, they are about eight feet in height, 

 with the top straight, crowned with irregular little turrets. 

 These nests are about 10 miles inland from Palmerston. 



In a recent paper Mr. Jack,* after giving an account of their 

 structure, says : — " The reason of their being built at this angle 

 is to secure the maximum of desiccation. They do not repair 

 these nests in the long dry season; but when the wet season sets 

 in repair all damages. Its safety lies in being dried as quickly 

 as possible. In tropical latitudes it is obvious that this drying 

 can best be secured by placing the longer axis of the structure 

 north and south, so that the rays of the sun may beat upon it 

 during the greater part of the day." 



Professor Spencer statesf that near Brinkley Bluff the Horn 

 Expedition party came across a patch of the nests of these termites 

 from 4 to 5 feet in height, of a bright red colour, about a hundred 

 nests occupying half an acre of ground. Unfoi'tunately no speci- 

 mens were collected from them. 



Termes paradoxus, n.sp. 

 (Plate XXXV., fig. 2.) 



General colour light brown; wings pale fuscous, darkest near 

 the base ; the whole insect thickly covered with long hairs. 

 Length to tip of wing 5; to tip of body 2^ lines. 



Head oval, longer than broad, slightly flattened on the summit, 

 with a pustular mark in the centre, forehead concave in front; 

 eyes large, coarsely faceted, projecting on the sides; ocelli want- 

 ing; antennse long, robust, springing from a cleft in front of the 

 eyes; 18-jointed, 1st stout, cylindrical; 2nd smaller; 3rd smallest; 

 4th-17th large, stalked, turbinate; 18th oval; clypeus large, lobed, 

 rounded behind; labrum large, rounded; palpi long; jaws small, 

 angular, bearing 4 small teeth. Prothorax heart-shaped, not as 

 broad as the head, arcuate in the centre of the front margin. 



* Notes on the Meridional Ant Hill of the Cape York Peninsula. Proc. 

 Royal Society, Queensland, Vol. xii. p. 99, 1897. 



t Report Horn Scientific Expedition, Part I. 1896, p. 129. 



