Rha poe ©. ONS. 
SESSION 1898-99. 
IL—QUEENSLAND TERMITES. 
By Mr ROBERT GRIEVE, J.P., of Broadwater, Brisbane, Queensland. 
(Communicated by Mr W. C. CrawrorD, President, Nov. 23, 1898.) 
THE following paper was sent to me by Mr Robert Grieve of 
Brisbane, Queensland, a few weeks ago. Mr Grieve has lived 
in Queensland for a very long time—some thirty-five years. 
He has resided, although not far from the capital of Queens- 
land, in what is virtually the bush. He has therefore been in 
immediate touch with the fauna of that country, and he is an 
excellent observer. He has devoted most attention to insects 
and spiders, chiefly the kinds that destroy fruit-trees and 
crops. He is the very man to make observations on these 
extremely interesting and little-known communities, the 
white ants. I have said “little known,” because good au- 
thorities on insects tell us that there are in all probability 
1000 species of termites, of which only about 100 have been 
described, and of these only a very few—perhaps half-a-dozen 
—have been really studied. So some years ago I urged Mr 
Grieve to study termites, and, on account of his intimate 
associations with Edinburgh, to write a paper on them for one 
of the Edinburgh scientific societies. At first he declined, 
saying I had no idea how difficult a task it was—although the 
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