1892.] 63 



inner gallaries to be carried out to the courts of the nests when all 

 danger is passed. We have reluctantly sacrificed the galleries of 

 several nests to enable us to study their habits or modes of dealing 

 with their economic inhabitants, and on several occasions in older 

 nests we have seem some of the smaller forms of workers ineffectually 

 struggling with a large Coccid, endeavouring to remove it to a place 

 of safety ; while many other ants in hurrying past would stroke the 

 Coccid with their antennae, but make no effort to remove it. The latter 

 are always conspicuous objects in the nests, and if not seized and 

 carried off by the ants generally endeavour to conceal themselves 

 by moving slowly away ; I have often watched them disappear un- 

 aided into the galleries. Many of the stones we turn over have 

 numbers of ants and Coccids adhering to their under-surface, on such 

 occasions the ants will generally, but not always, crowd around the 

 latter and remain in motionless groups until the stone is again placed 

 over the nest. 



But the subject of my remarks is the origin of their nests in 

 their natural state, and in dealing with it, it cannot be doubted that 

 the study of ants in a state of nature is more difiicult than in con- 

 veniently constructed artificial nests. In giving a brief summary 

 of the general economy and habits of the Tetramoria, as I have 

 observed them here, it will appear clear to students of the group 

 that they differ considerably from other species observed and recorded 

 by Hymenopterists in other parts of the world, I have, likewise, made 

 it sufficiently clear that these nests originate by the union of several 

 individuals of both sexes on sites already instinctively selected and 

 inhabited by Aphides and Coccids, which serve as an economic basis 

 while founding their nests. As the colonies increase along with the 

 warmer weather, and the increasing supply of other food, the ants 

 bestow less care on them than during the founding and earlier stages 

 of the nest. The sites of the nests are well adapted to the habits of 

 ants in all weathers : in winter the heavy rains percolate freely 

 through the loose sand and fine shingle, while in summer they are 

 cool and damp, and afford perfect conditions for hatching their eggs 

 and rearing their larvae. The nests being placed under stones are free 

 from the attacks of birds and other enemies which attack the mound- 

 making and other species. 



In dealing with the economic and parasitic groups of insects 

 inhabiting ants' nests, the habits of the former have received the most 

 attention from entomologists. In studying the literature of the sub- 

 ject, especially such dealing with parasites, I have been much interested 



