THE VICTOPaAN NATURALIST. 107 



Strong measures are taken to denude some of the young queens 

 at the swarming period. 2nd. By voluntary action of the queen 

 itself. For this purpose the two posterior legs are used. The 

 legs are hitched over the wings, which are bent back and broken 

 off. Their attitude during this operation forcibly reminds you of 

 a gentleman carrying his walking-stick across his back, with his 

 elbows hitched over it. 3rd. By the natural process of exfolia- 

 tion — or, to use a legal term, the wings become " null and void 

 by the effluxion of time." All Bull-ants sting. 



As regards the nests, they are very similar in outward 

 appearance and internal construction. Externally, a little loose 

 earth and a few holes are the only indications. I have opened 

 many of them during the past winter, and while there is a very 

 strong resemblance in the construction of the nests, I have been 

 struck with the fact that in all the Black nests I have found 

 larvae. This is not a case of the last brood hibernating, as is the 

 case with some ants, for the larvae are in various stages, and 

 increase in size during the winter months. In the Red nests I 

 have not found any larvae, and infer that breeding with the 

 Blacks goes on all the year round, while with the Reds it may not 

 proceed during the winter. The impression is strengthened by 

 the fact that the Blacks are far more numerous around Mel- 

 bourne, I know one paddock at Hampton in which I could 

 discover only one nest of Reds, while there are over 50 nests of 

 Blacks. It had first occurred to me that this discrepancy might 

 have been owing to the Blacks having almost exterminated the 

 Reds there, but I find the same occurs at the scrub between 

 Sandringham and Beaumaris, where the question of warfare would 

 not come in, for the district there is comparatively wide, and the 

 Blacks are not in such numbers as to have the nests so close 

 together ; yet it would be safe to say that even there 30 nests 

 would be found of the Blacks for one of the Reds. At Heidelberg 

 also I have found the Blacks more numerous. Probably some 

 of my fellow-naturalists may be able to confirm this in localities 

 further afield. 



[Since writing this paper I have had the queen Black Bull 

 laying its eggs, and am therefore able to confirm the impression 

 that breeding proceeds all the year round with the Black Bulls.] 



The strength of the colonies is also different. I have found the 

 Blacks number from five hundred to a thousand, while the Reds 

 I have opened numbered from two hundred to five hundred. 

 Both the nests go down 2 to 4 feet through the surface 

 soil into the yellow clay, and I have found them where the clay 

 was particularly hard, so that considerable labour with pick and 

 shovel is required in taking them out. There are exceptional 

 cases where the form of the nest is modified, which it may be 

 from the strength of the colony, the time it has been established, 



