96 
for this reason that the nurses are indefatigable in licking their 
charges to remove the spores from which these vegetable parasites 
take their rise. Larvae isolated from the attentions of the workers 
very quickly suecumb to these exhausting growths. It is probably 
due to the need of a certain amount of ventilation that the larvae are 
usually found in the upper chambers, thus presenting a parallel with 
the case of the short-tailed field vole (microtus agrestis), of England. 
The ordinary retreat of these rodents is a burrow situated far below 
the surface; but their young are reared in a nest of split grass, built 
upon the very surface of the ground. They are exposed to innumer- 
able dangers, of course; but a litter of six or eight young mice would 
probably be suffocated if confined in a deeply situated nursery, 
As showing the preference of these ants for moist surroundings, 
[I may mention that for some months I kept a colony upon a porous 
earthenware saucer inverted in a basin of water and completely eoy- 
ered by a mound of clay and sand. When I eventually broke up the 
formicary, I found that the chambers and galleries had all been 
hollowed out in the soil immediately above the damp earthenware 
surface, the saucer itself forming the floor, The higher and drier 
portion of the mound had not been inhabited at all. 
PRENOLEPIS IMPARIS 
{s found here in great abundance, and is common from the At- 
Jantic to the Pacific. We will content ourselves, therefore, with mere- 
ly recording its occurrence. It ascends the blue gum, (eucalyptus 
globulus), and may be found by the dozen resting half hidden among 
the fragrant anthers. 
MYRMECOCYSTUS MELLIGER FOREL 
The typical form has not yet been found here, but a variety which 
appears to be intermediate between varieties testaceus and semirufus 
has been identified by Professor Wheeler. 
MYRMECOCYSTUS MELLIGER LOMAENSIS 
Another variety or sub-species has been found here, only previously 
reported from Riverside and Whittier by Mr. Quayle. 
This ant is strictly diurnal in its habits, and has been seen feeding 
upon the white flowers of mesembryanthemum aequilaterale. 
In an artificial nest these ants were fed with a drop of bee’s honey 
in a leaf. Instead of greedily lapping it up, as the first two species 
here treated of would have done, they became violently agitated. 
They flung themselves upon the honey and sprayed it with their poison, 
