434 AUSTRALIAN TERMITID.E, 



Another nest was found upon the summit of a rock at Manly, 

 near Sydney, apjDarently built over the stump of a small tree that 

 had been growing in a cleft of the rock. A number of covered 

 galleries led down over the face of the rock into the ground, and 

 in several places where they passed over a sharp angle the 

 cohered ways were transformed into tubular bridges from point to 

 point; these galleries averaged from ^ to a J of an inch in breadth 

 and were constructed entirely of vegetable matter. When one of 

 the galleries was broken the soldiers rushed out in a small body, 

 scattering on either side of the damaged roadway; after hunting 

 about on the surface of the rocks, the}' then retreated to the 

 breach, which they all entered and formed a rank along either 

 side, standing just far enough apart to touch the tips of each other's 

 antennpe. While they stood in this regular line with their heads 

 up and their antennng moving backwards and forwards, the 

 workers appeared, each carrying in its mouth a l^it of wood or 

 fragment from the wall, and, passing between the soldiers who 

 were standing guard, deposited its l)urden upon the edge of the wall 

 and turning round evacuated a small drop of dark brovrn liquid 

 from its anus upon the top of its brick- and then disappeared, the 

 next one taking his place and going through exactl}^ the same 

 joerformance, an endless gang of workers following each other and 

 rapidly reducing the size of the hole; a gap about an inch long 

 and half an inch deep was rebuilt in half an hour. Unlike 

 the two-jawed termites, which never rebuild their nests in the 

 daytime, the Eutermes do not seem to dislike the light, but will 

 expose themselves in the hottest sunlight when mending their 

 nests. 



The nest upon the rock at Manly was partly demolished and a 

 small queen obtained from the centre in February, and about 

 three months afterwards was found rebuilt, the material being all 

 woody matter, crisp and thin, and cutting up like e.gg shell. I 

 have seen one of these nests built on the top of a gate post, 

 another upon the top of a pile in a bridge, the termites having 

 formed it under the iron cap in the cavity between it and the top 

 of the pile; it lifted off in a single mass like a small cheese. 



