100 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



is nothing on the surface to indicate the existence ' 

 of a burrow, except a little opening about an inch 

 in diameter. From this, the central burrow runs 

 down. The natives soon found one or two, am 

 immediately set to work to dig them out. It waj 

 astonishing to watch the speed with which the eldei 

 woman worked. First of all, the ground around 

 the opening was loosened with a digging stick held 

 in the right hand close to the lower end. The earth 

 was scooped out with the aid of a small wooden 

 bowl held in the left hand, and alternately loosen- 

 ing the soil with the stick and then throwing it 

 behind her, the lubra soon sank a hole just bi| 

 enough to hold her body. The main burrow weni 

 down between five or six feet with horizontal pas- 

 sages going off all around it. A few of the honey 

 ants were found in each of these, but the greatei 

 number were in a swollen chamber at the base. 

 In the nests which we dug up we only found tw( 

 kinds of ants, one of the ordinary worker." There is 

 an American species of honey ant, and the honey 

 is obtained by the workers. "The honey is a product 

 of a small gall found on the oak leaves, and is ob- 

 tained by the worker ants during nocturnal expedi- 

 tions from which they return much distended ; the^ 

 feed such workers left at home as may be hungry 

 and then apparently communicate the remainder oi 

 the sweet stuff they have brought back to already 

 partly charged "honey bearers" left in the nest . . . 

 the creatures move but little and remain suspended 

 from the roof of a special chamber." (Sharp.) 



A common camponotid is PolyrJiacJiis, or the 



