TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 123 
mass of some grand cathedral. A broadside view of one of the most elaborately 
pinnacled examples of this description of termitarium, observed and photographed by 
the author in the Laura district, and closely corresponding with the one depicted in 
Plate XX., is reproduced on page 122. 
Another more widely known variety of Meridian Ant nest occurs, and. has 
been seen by the author, on the Victoria river plains, some forty miles from Port 
Darwin, in the Northern Territory of South Australia. To the kind courtesy of 
Mr. Paul Folsche, for many years superintendent of the Police Department at 
Palmerston, the writer is indebted for the very excellent photographs of these 
remarkable Port Darwin termitaria that illustrate this Chapter. The Meridian 
termitaria in this instance, as portrayed in Plate XXI., figs. A and B, are about the 
same height as the Laura river type last described, but differ from them in being much 
more solid and compact. There is also an absence of the ornately pinnacled plan of 
architecture notable in the Laura variety, their upper edge as shown in profile being 
nearly smooth or but slightly serrated. Another peculiarity of the Port Darwin 
variety, pointed out to the author by Mr. Folsche, is the circumstance that they are 
usually distinctly convex on the east, and concave on the west, of their opposing, broad 
lateral surfaces. 
White Ant termitaria corresponding in aspect and structure with the Port 
Darwin type, have been also reported to the author by Dr. T. L. Bancroft, of Brisbane, 
as occurring in the neighbourhood of the Howard river, North Queensland. From a 
photograph of them placed at the writer’s disposal by that authority, it would appear 
that they attain to a more considerable elevation, some of them, as shown by the 
figures in their vicinity, being not less than nine or ten feet high. It is further 
worthy of remark that, while in the Port Darwin district the Meridian Ant-hills are 
erected on a more or less open grassy plain, their co-types near the Howard river occur 
in the midst of a thickly timbered country. Possibly, on a nearer investigation, this 
Howard river form will prove to be a third distinctly differentiated type of the 
Meridian structural plan. 
The raison @étre of the north and south directions of these Meridian Ant 
nests has given rise to much speculation and various interpretations. By some it is 
supposed to bear a direct relationship to the prevalent winds. As, however, these, in 
the districts where they occur, are chiefly, according to the seasonal monsoons, south- 
east or north-west, but predominantly the former, that theory would hardly appear to 
afford a satisfactory explanation. A more probable interpretation presents itself to the 
