32 



slender, and somewhat spiny; the abdomen large and clothed with fine 

 hairs. The workers are very dark-coloured, the dorsal surface of the 

 abdomen even brown, and quite as large as the soldier. 



My father first found these white ants under a log at Kalgoorlie, 

 Western Australia, and wrote, " These soldiers are very savage, when 

 touched exuding a white milky substance, at the same time biting so 

 viciously that if once they caught hold with their enormous jaws, you 

 could pull their heads oS before they would let go." 



My father later on in the season sent me another lot which he noticed 

 coming out of the ground after a shower; each one of these was clinging 

 to the bit of grass with which it had been picked up by its closed jaws 

 when received in the tube of spirits. 



The range of this species is evidently considerable, as Mr. Tryon has 

 shown me specimens of this termite from Charlieville, on the Warrego, 

 Western Queensland. 



The Dagger-jawed Whits Ant (Termes hrisiformis, Froggatt). 



This species was for a long time only known to me from small colonics 

 of soldiers and workers found under logs about Sutherland, near Sydney, 

 but last summer (1904) I came across a number of small rounded nests 

 in the scrub near the Bulli Pass, which proved to be the home of this 

 termite. They were scattered about in the thick forest on the hillside, and 

 were of a rounded form, about 6 inches in height and a foot in diameter 

 at the base, composed of earth more than woody matter, full of irregular 

 galleries and a very primitive queen chamber, with abundance of eggs, 

 but no winged forms. In the end of February, this season (1905), at 

 Noundoc, about 45 miles east of Walcha, in the New England district, 

 in similar forest country, I found this to be a common species, living 

 in small communities under stones and logs ; and under one found a 

 large colony full of winged forms, workers, and soldiers. 



Winged form (previously unknown) black to dark brown on thorax and 

 abdomen, rest ochreous; wings black, clothed with fine reddish hairs, 

 thickest on abdomen. Length of body 2^ lines; length to tip of wings ^ 

 inch. Head broad, rounded behind, swelling out in front; clypeus pale, 

 ■rounded, projecting, lobed; antennae slender, 14-jointed; eyes large, 

 projecting; ocelli small, pale brown, well in front of eyes; jaws small, 

 bright ferruginous, with two slender teeth at tips, smaller one in centre, 

 and large, stout one at base. Prothorax flattened, very rugose, truncate in 

 front, rounded behind; legs stout. Wings long, rounded at tips, 

 scapular shield short, rough. The costal and sub-costal nervures stout, 

 rounded to the tip ; medium nervure running through upper half of wing 

 unbranched; sub-median with eight oblique nervures. The abdomen 

 broad, rounded at tip and furnished with very small cerci. 



The soldier has a pale yellow broad, somewhat square head, longer thau 

 broad, rounded behind, truncate behind the jaws, with slender 14-jointed 

 antennaj; the jaws springing out from the front of the head, slender, 

 turned up, then curved down, of an irregular thickness, again turning 



