NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ANTS. 
“November 2nd, 1931, I found a very interesting incipient colony 
of nigriceps under a large log at Margaret river, Western Australia. It 
consisted of the mother, eight small workers, three worker cocoons 
and several larvae of various sizes.” 
It is difficult to reconcile this fact when he states on page 29 
that the female leads the life of a recluse, until October or 
November. 
The female does not lead the life of a recluse, for all during 
the winter months she may be found foraging for food both 
for herself and larvae. I have reared a large number of species 
in artificial nests and the results correspond with those obtained 
in the bush. Early in March of last year (1933) a large marriage 
flight of Myrmecia forficata Fab. took place at Ferntree Gully. 
Three w r eeks later it w'as desired to secure some working colonies 
for demonstration at a natural history exhibition in Melbourne 
on the 5th to 7th April. Knowing that queens could be obtained 
there, a representative of the exhibition committee and my 
daughter Mabel accompanied me to Ferntree Gully to secure 
material. Within an hour w r e found several females with their 
cells complete and some of them with their eggs. One of the 
females exhibited had fourteen eggs, three of winch hatched 
before the exhibition closed. This female is still alive and well 
with her larvae ; with ordinary care these larvae will have 
pupated and the ants issued in October or November as found 
by Dr. Wheeler, and stated by me in 1925. 
On pages 49-55 Wheeler deals at length with Myrmecia 
(Promyrmecia') aberrant Forel and its various forms. He says 
(p. 53-54) ' 
"The nests of three of the above described subspecies, formosa, 
haematosticta and mama are practically identical. Those of the first 
and second subspecies were found November 26 and 27 near Uralla in 
open sheep pastures on volcanic soil at an altitude of about 3000 ft. 
only bv patiently following the rare, single workers which were returning 
home with insect prey. No mound marks the site of the nest, which 
is a mere hole (Fig. 20) a quarter of an inch in diameter, leading into a 
perpendicular gallery terminating at a depth of somewhat more than a 
foot in a small chamber. Usually only three or four workers and no 
female were found with a small number of cocoons in this chamber. 
Even including foraging workers a colony can scarcely comprise more 
than a dozen individuals. They were by no means aggressive. While 
foraging they crawled about rather slowly and were never seen to 
climb the vegetation nor to jump like other small species of Myrmecia.” 
Further on he says (p. 54) : — 
“These meager notes indicate, perhaps, that the subgenus Pro- 
myrmecia should be retained as defined by Emery, since aberrans differs 
not only morphologically but also ethologically from all the other 
smaller Myrmecias which Clark has included in the group. 
m 
