284 WHEELER. 



head, etc. Though less abundant than rarions var. ruficcps at Ku- 

 randa, it is nevertheless very common in that locality, where it is 

 confined to the shady tropical scrub. The nests, however, are not 

 easily foimd. October 21 I followed a worker unicolor, that was car- 

 rying a small white moth, for a distance of nearly 50 feet along a dark 

 path in the scrub, till the nest was located as a large hole under the 

 roots of a great fig tree. These prevented excavation, but I was able 

 to run a stick into the cavity for a distance of 18 inches, when many 

 of the repletes poured out, indicating that I had penetrated to the end 

 of the nest. October 28 I discovered two nests which were accessible 

 in red rotten logs. The first contained only 50 workers, but many 

 young larvae. The other colony occupied a large cavity fully two feet 

 long and several inches broad in the heart of the log. This colony 

 comprised fully 250 or 300 workers, with numerous larva* and pupfe, 

 apparently all of the worker phase. In both these nests the larvae 

 and pupffi were on the floor of the cavity till the ants were disturbed, 

 when they seized them in their jaws and huddled together on the ceil- 

 ing. In none of the nests of this species were there any repletes. 



Postscript. 



Since the foregoing account of the species of Leptomyrmex was sent 

 to the press, Forel has published an important contribution to our 

 knowledge of the Australian ant-fauna (Results of Dr. E. Mjoberg's 

 Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-1913, 2. Ameisen, 

 Arkiv for Zool. 9, 1915, pp. 1-119, 3 pis., 6 text-figs.), containing de- 

 scriptions of a new species and new variety of Leptomyrmex and of the 

 hitherto unknown male of L. varians var. ruficeps. For the sake 

 of completeness, I include a translation of these descriptions: 



Leptomyrmex varians Emery var. ruficeps Emery. 



"Male. Length 7.5-7.7 mm. 



Entirely pale reddish yellow; wings feebly suffused with yellow 

 and with brownish yellow veins. The narrow head is contracted 

 anteriorly and posteriorly and nearly 2^ times longer than broad in 

 the middle. The large convex eyes lie in the middle and occupy 

 nearly | of the whole head. Antennal scape shorter than the long 

 second funicular joint. First funicular joint as broad as long. The 



