/; \ 



CHAPTER ix. 



ODD) TIE/) 



.HE world of Insect Life in Australasia is as 

 redundant with oddities and anomalies as any 

 of the more highly organised animal classes. 

 The remarkable fabrications of the White Ants, Termites, 

 have already furnished the material for a separate Chapter. 

 As much, or more, might .be written concerning the true 

 Ants, or Formicida3, which in Australia are conspicuous, 

 not only for their numbers, but also with regard to their 

 size. Several species, indeed, such as the colonially familiar 

 "Bull-dog" and "Inchmen" Ants, equal or even exceed 

 in dimensions the unit of measurement from which, in the 

 latter instance, they take their designation. 



The ants, however, which above all others appeared 

 to the writer to present the strongest claims for recognition 

 and immortalisation are the so-called Green Ants, Formica 

 viridis, with which it may be safely anticipated every 

 explorer of the North Queensland " bush " is familiar. In 

 the Green Ant country, all the low trees and shrubs, which 



1 BUTTERFLY BIRTHDAYS," p. 257. 



W. Saville-fent, Photo. 



