BY WALTER W. FROGGATT. 
433 
common idea that some nests contained both pike-headed and 
scissor-jawed soldiers, but it is now known that this is not the case, 
the Eutermes communities being quite distinct from those with 
double-jawed soldiers. 
The Eutermes build two kinds of nests, or rather similar nests 
in different situations, either terrestrial or arboreal. Those built 
on the ground are most common about Sydney, and are formed 
over a small stump, never more than two to three feet and a half 
in height, perfectly round at the base, with the summit rounded 
and dome-shaped. They are generally dark brown or black, even 
the outer surface being an admixture of earthy and woody matter, 
and often with hardly any earth in their composition. There are 
no enveloping walls. The true nest starts from the surface, the 
whole being full of cells and chambers, though they are fewer and 
the nest much harder and tougher on the surface; working 
towards the centre the soft papery structure (similar to that of 
the large nests) is found — "the nursery." The queen and eggs are 
not very far away from the nucleus, but the terraced portion is 
not of the same regular formation as that of the large nests, and 
there is virtually no distinct " royal chamber," but the queen is 
found about the centre of the low, flat chambers. In one nest I 
found three well-developed queens, all laying eggs, and within three 
or four inches of each other but separated by overlying terraces. 
The bulk of all these nests is almost all woody matter which has 
been passed through the bodies of the termites and been voided by 
the workers; yet if a terrestrial nest be cut down on one side they 
will rebuild it with grains of sand or earth cemented together with 
excreta. Ridley,* speaking of the Malay Peninsula, says that 
the termites do not live in the sandy soil. This is not the case 
in Australia, for I have found Eutermes nests in almost pure sand 
at Botany Bay, near Sydney, which though when first opened 
were constructed of woody matter, yet two months afterwards one 
was rebuilt with sand cemented together into a solid mass. 
* H. N. Ridley. The Flora of Eastern Malaya. Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. 
(2nd Ser.) iii. p. 270, 1893. 
