436 AUSTRALIAN TERMITIDuE, 



However, different localities seem to give them different 

 habits, for the mound builder of the Shoalhaven district is the 

 same species as that which does most of the damage to the wood- 

 work of the houses about Sydney, yet I have never been able to 

 find a mound formed by them within thirty miles of Sydney^ 

 though it is the commonest species of this neighbourhood, being- 

 found under stones, logs, bark, and in tree trunks. 



About the middle of last year it was discovered that the white 

 ants were in the floor of the Record Room in the oflices of the 

 Dej^artment of Education in Bridge-street, where I had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the inethod of attack. 



I found that the floor, which was old and attaclced with dry rot 

 in j)laces, had been riddled all along the hard gum (probably iron- 

 bark) joists for a distance of 15 to 20 feet all round what had evidently 

 been the centre of the nest, as a great mass of clay had l^een raised 

 up from the ground between two joists round which the timbers 

 were perfectly honeycombed. The nest and timbers round it were 

 full of soldiers, workers and young winged forms, but I saw no 

 sign of a queen, though as the floor had been uncovered the night 

 before this was hardly to be wondered at. This nest, I should 

 think, had been under the floor for some years; and it was only 

 from their beginning to eat through the hardwood flooring boards 

 tliat the termites were noticed. 



On several other occasions I have obtained specimens taken out 

 of buildings, and it has always proved to be the same species. 

 Sometimes they attack only a single board or joist and then leave 

 the place, but at other times they eat on till disturbed. Mr. 

 Chisholm, of Torrens Creek, North Queensland, tells me that they 

 are easily frightened by thumping against the board or wall they 

 are destroying, and run back, huddling together like a flock of 

 frightened sheep. No timber is really termite-proof unless pro- 

 tected, for though they have a marked preference for some woods, 

 yet if they cannot get what they lik e they take the nearest; thus 

 in Norman ton Melaleuca is said to be ant-resisting, yet further 

 down the Flinders they show a marked preference for it. The 

 Jarrah (Eucalyptus maryinata) of Western Australia is another 



