26 



the black "Bulldog Ant." This was a rather formidable 

 affair, owing to many hundreds of the large creatures (the 

 females above an inch in length while alive) flitting about one's 

 head, all armed with a sting about a quarter of an inch in 

 length, while the shrubs near the nest were covered with scores 

 of pairs and single ones. This took place on April 7, 1880, 

 between ten and eleven o'clock a.m., and I learned here for 

 the first time that the males differ so much in form from the 

 more formidable and aggressive sex that till then they had 

 been looked upon as belonging to a genus of wasps. 



They are only from half to two-thirds the size of the females ; 

 are much more slender in build, and much more active ; their 

 heads are small in proportion, no larger, in fact, than those of 

 certain species of wasps ; have weak mandibles (the females 

 and workers possessing very strong ones) ; and the first joints 

 of the antenngp differ in no wise from the remainder ; while the 

 females and workers generally have a very long one at the 

 base, thus producing the appearance of a break or knee-like 

 bend. Though owning a sting, yet this is not long, and they 

 do not employ it very readily. 



Eeverting to the forming of new colonies of ants, this can 

 be observed easily with two species of ants very common and 

 numerous in many parts of South Australia, viz., the purplish 

 city-building Pormica (about a quarter inch in length), and 

 the small black ant (scarcely one-eighth inch), overrunning in 

 countless numbers all dry localities, even cottages, especially 

 where there are trees or shrubs and the grass not dense. Both 

 act essentially in the same manner, but the habits and habita- 

 tions of the larger species being more conspicuous, I select it 

 for illustration. These ants belong apparently to the Formi- 

 cid^e, but possess nevertheless a not quite despicable sting in 

 addition to strong mandibles and a very excitable temper. 



As localities for their habitations they prefer hard, dry, 

 barren spots, in which they sink their circular and mostly 

 perpendicular shafts, a number of which being situated in close 

 proximity, the distance between them being from three to 

 fifteen inches, varying according to the strength and age of 

 the nest. The ejected grains of gravel and pellets of clay, &c., 

 are placed on the waste ground around and between the holes, 

 get solidified by alternate wetting and drying, and gradually 

 attain very respectable dimensions. One of the largest seen 

 measured about a yard in perpendicular height, and some two 

 or three across, the heap being chiefly composed of ferruginous 

 pebbles from a pin's head and upwards in size, and containing 

 more than a score of shafts. Generally, though, they are only 

 a few inches high in the centre, and where not protected by 

 surrounding shrubs no materials collect, the wind removing 



