AUSTRALIAN HONEY-ANTS. 281 



October 19 I found a nest in a hollow log nearly 50 feet long that was 

 lying in the shade. The ants were entering the log by a large opening. 

 On breaking into it, I found that the cavity extended through the more 

 decomposed, central wood to such a distance that I could introduce 

 my whole arm into it. The colony comprised about 200-300 workers, 

 only the ordinary forms of which rushed out of the nest when it was 

 first broken open. The numerous repletes took refuge at the blind 

 end of the cavity where they hung from the ceiling. On thrusting 

 my tweezers among them, many came out, each carrying a larva or 

 pupa. Later both repletes and many of the ordinary workers found 

 that they could go deeper into the log where I could not reach them. 

 I estimated one replete to about 25 or 30 of the ordinary M^orkers. 

 On returning to this nest a few hours later I found that nearly all the 

 ants had gone back to their nest and that only a few were outside the 

 entrance looking through the debris for lost larvae and pupae. 



On October 24 two other colonies of ruficeps were found in the same 

 locality. One of them was in the center of a large rotten log, which 

 the ants entered at one end by an opening fully eight inches across. 

 The cavity ran back a distance of fully two feet, preserving this same 

 diameter. When the nest was disturbed most of the ants retreated 

 to the blind end of the cavity where I could reach them only with a 

 stick. When this was thrust among them, numerous repletes, each 

 carrying a larva or pupa in its jaws, came to the entrance. 



The second nest was a more fortunate discovery. On accidentally 

 kicking off the upper half of a large and very rotten log for a distance 

 of about two feet, I found that I had opened a large ruficeps nest. 

 The ants were mostly on the ceiling of a large cavity and comprised 

 fully 300 ordinary workers and at least 50 repletes, every one of which 

 was holding a larva or pupa in its jaws. 



I observed that ruficeps workers, on the approach of evening, 

 often carry each other back to the nest. I have not noticed this 

 habit in other Dolichoderinfe, though it is common in many Myr- 

 micinse and Camponotinae. On several occasions ruficeps was seen 

 carrying caterpillars and dead ants to its nest. The repletes, as 

 stated on p. 260 occasionally leave the nest. 



18. Leptomyrmex varians var. rothneyi Forel. 



Forel Rev. Suisse Zool. 10, 1902, p. 473 y ; Froggatt, Agric. Gaz. 

 N. S. W. Sept. 1905, p. 23; Emery, Genera Insect. Fasc. 137, 1912. 

 p. 17. 



