ANTS 143 



fested with a loose cottony scale, and the ants built 

 up a covering of sand around a branch, and so pro- 

 tected the scales and enabled the ants to pass freely 

 under the covering. We transported one of these 

 nests and kept it under observation for some months. 

 Professor Spencer, in "Across Australia," describes 

 the nests of certain ants which had special store 

 ants or "honey pots." "One of these nests has the 

 form of a mound upwards of 2ft. in diameter and 

 about six inches high, with a large crater-like de- 

 pression at the top. The ants arrange a thick 

 deposit of the long dry phyllodes (so called leaves) 

 of the mulga tree, so as to cover the dome. They 

 are all placed in a perfectly radial manner, and 

 give the nest a most characteristic appearance. 



"Another nest had a mound of the same size, but 

 instead of a crater opening, it had a slit five or six 

 inches long and half an inch wide. The mound 

 was covered with an enormous number of grass 

 seeds, every one of which must have been brought 

 in separately by the insects, which is one of the 

 many species of the genus Camponotus (Camponotus 

 denticulatus). We spent some time investigat- 

 ing the nest, but the ground w^as as hard as stone, 

 and the insects, which were one-half or threequarters 

 of an inch in length, disliked being disturbed. There 

 did not appear to be anything like a fungoid growth 

 among the leaves or seeds, or anything that we 

 could see which would be of service to the ants, 

 though such might, of course, be present under 

 different conditions in regard to moisture. Often 

 these two kinds of nests would be close together, 



