_ CHAPTER 1X7 4 
JNsect ODDITIES . 
LHE 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 Formicide, 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 
“ BUTTERFLY BIRTHDAYS,” p. 257. W. Saville-Kent, Photo. 
