550 AUSTRALIAN TERMITID.E, 



showing through the semitransparent skin : head sphei'ical, show- 

 ing two lobes on forehead, rounded towards the base of antennae, 

 with a dark spot on either side of clypeus; prothorax smaller than 

 head, the rest of thorax and abdominal segments rounded, slender, 

 and cylindrical to the tip. 



Hah. — Sydney, Botany and Hoinsby (W. W. Froggatt). 



About Sydney this species is only found by cutting off the loose 

 bark upon the trunks of Eucalyptus rohusta. The insects feed 

 upon the inner bark, and sometimes on the living sap wood, 

 evidently as a general rule gnawing a passage through from 

 behind, as there are always several tunnels leading inwards in the 

 trunks, which are nearly always rotten and decayed in the centre. 

 They live in small communities of from iifty to a few hundred 

 individuals, the majorit}' being workers or larvas, with sometimes 

 only one or two soldiers in the colony. Except in the head, the 

 soldiers closely resemble the workers, and try to hide as soon as 

 they are exposed. They form very slender tubular tunnels in 

 all directions in the bai'k, each individual burrowing on his 

 own account, no room being left to allow of their passing each 

 other. The winged ones are very small in comparison with the 

 workers and soldiers. Some well de^'eloped pupa? were obtained 

 in a rather numerous colony in a dead tree (the only time I ever 

 found them aAvayfrom the living trees), and these matui'ed to the 

 perfect insects in December. 



H E T E R O T E R M I T 1 N .E. 



Heterotermes, g.n. 



Head large, longer than broad, nearly (juadrate; e3'es very 

 small, not projecting; ocelli wanting : clypeus large; labrum 

 broad; antennte 16-jointed. Prothorax not as broad as head, 

 truncated on the sides; legs stout, with four or five stout spines 

 at the ajDex of til)i8e. Wings nearly thrice as long as broad • 

 scapular shield small and angular; costal, subcostal and median 

 nervures running very close to each other, but the costal and suIj. 

 costal distinctly separated from each other; submedian and oblique 

 nervures slender. 



