their domiciles. Such plain evidence of a preconcerted plan 

 of action in the event of attack would seem to indicate that 

 predatory raids by one species of ant on the nests of others are 

 of common occurrence. — J. C. Goudie. Sea Lake, 25/1/13. 

 [This note has been held over for several issues, owing to want 

 of space. — Ed. ]^ict. Nat.] 



The Freshwater Crayfishes of Australia. — A useful 

 memoir by Mr. Geoffrey Smith, M.A., on the freshwater cray- 

 fishes of Australia is published in the Proceedings of the Zoo- 

 logical Society of London, 1912. Mr. Smith, who, it will be 

 remembered, visited Australia and Tasmania in 1907-8, and 

 wrote an interesting volume on his trip, entitled " A Naturalist 

 in Tasmania," divides the group into three genera, embracing 

 eight species. He considers Astacopsis (Astacoides) serratits, 

 the Murray River Crayfish, includes the various forjns found 

 in the streams of Northern Victoria, the Yarra, and the 

 Parramatta, but gives the name A. kershawi to a species found 

 by Mr. J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., in the Moe River, which he 

 considers a connecting link with the Tasmanian species, A. 

 franklinii. A new genus, Parachaeraps, is founded for the 

 common Yabber, or Yabbie, named Astacoides hicarinatus by 

 M'Coy. The genus Chaeraps includes four species from 

 Western and Northern Australia, one species extending to New 

 Guinea and the Aru Islands. The memoir is illustrated with 

 beautifully executed plates. 



The Land Crayfishes of Australia. — In a memoir 

 published by the Zoological Society of London in March last, 

 Mr. Geoffrey Smith, M.A., and Mr. E. H. J. Schuster. M.A., 

 D.Sc, deal with the crustaceans belonging to the genus 

 Engseus, popularly known as " land-crabs." The authors 

 recognize seven species, all found either in Victoria or Tasmania, 

 or in both. Erichson, in 1846, described Engceus fossor, the 

 type of the genus, which, it seems, is confined to Tasmania, 

 but his second species, E. citnicnlarins, occurs both in Tasmania 

 and Victoria : the remaining five species are all Victorian, and 

 are regarded by the authors as new to science. Judging b}^ the 

 localities given, E. victoriensis is the name of our commonest 

 species, being recorded from Box Hill, Ferntree Gully, Emerald, 

 and Gippsland ; E. affinis occurs in the Upper Yarra district ; 

 E. phyllocercus is confined to Gippsland ; E. hcmicirratulus, 

 named in MS. by Prof. M'Coy as Hemicirratulus hystrix, is 

 recorded from South Gippsland ; while E. fidtoni, named in 

 honour of Mr. S. W. Fulton, a former member of the Club, 

 who devoted considerable attention to this group, is recorded 

 from Ferntree Gully and the Otway Forest. The memoir is 

 well illustrated by figures of the types and dissections. 



