484 Miscellaneous. 
the outer surfaces were solid. Shortly afterwards I paid a visit to 
Mr. Corrie’s farm, and made the following observations :— 
The bulk of the potatoes had been harvested, but a few remained 
undisturbed in the corner infested, and every one we turned over 
was more or less riddled with ant-holes. ‘The field in which the 
crop had been planted was new land, only cleared the previous 
season, and still containing a number of the larger stumps, while 
about 30 yards from the corner of the paddock there was a large 
white ants’ nest (termitarium), which, partly covering a large 
stump, reached to about 5 feet in height, and when cut down was 
found to be swarming with termites in all stages of development. 
There is not the least doubt that it was foraging parties from this 
nest that had invaded the paddock. 
This termite upon examination proved to be our commonest 
Sydney species, which is responsible for nearly all the damage done to 
houses in the city and suburbs. It belongs to the typical genus 
Termes, and in a concluding paper in my “ Monograph of the Austra- 
lian Termitidze,” being published in the ‘ Proceedings of the Linnean 
Society of New South Wales,’ I propose to call it the ** Milk 
Termite” (Termes lactis, sp. n.), on account of the soldiers ejecting 
a globule of milk-like fluid when disturbed. It was this species 
that destroyed the roof of the Australian Museum last year, and 
two years before eat out the floor of the records office in the 
buildings of the Department of Education in Bridge Street. The 
same termites are to be found destroying the woodwork of the hot- 
houses in the Botanic Gardens; and in nearly every instance where 
the white ants have been sent in from buildings about Sydney they 
have proved to belong to this species. 
In the immediate vicinity of Sydney these termites do not build 
mound-nests, but are found under logs or stones, gnawing the bark 
off dead trees, or in small communities about the trunks of trees; 
but upon the Blue Mountains and all over the Shoalhaven district 
they build large regular mound-nests. 
These termitariums measure from 2 to sometimes 63 feet in 
height, broadest at the base, and tapering slightly to a rounded 
summit. The outer surface consists of a solid earthern wall, often 
from a foot to 18 inches in thickness, formed of particles of earth 
gathered upon the surrounding surface and cemented together with 
the excreta of the workers voided while placing the earth in 
position, This wall encloses a compact woody mass, slightly sepa- 
rated from it on the sides, but almost touching at the apex. This 
central portion varies in different parts of the nest in its structure, 
but chietly consists of titurated wood that has been eaten and passed 
through the bodies of the termites, and has a regular foliated struc- 
ture. these lumps forming a coarse irregular honeycomb. The cap 
is composed of rounded irregular lumps, but towards the centre, 
about 6 inches from the ground-level, there is a soft papery-like 
mass about the size of a man’s head, composed of fine sheets folding 
round each other and full of holes and irregular galleries: this is 
the nursery, where all the very small laryze live after they have 
