THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. : 49 
them amongst the debris in the nest. Silverfish (T/y- 
sanura), crickets (Orthoptera), the Staphylinid beetle 
Conosoma, and the small blind beetles Rodwayia, seem to | 
be constantly moving. 
It may be as well to mention here that nests situ- 
ated beneath stones nearly always have the tunnels or gal- | 
leries, some of which are very large, running parallel to 
the base of the stone, the stone forming the roof of the 
nest. These galleries are, during the winter months, more 
or less filled with larvae and pupae. It is in the open por-— 
tions, or at the sides of these galleries, that the insects 
are usually found, though in many cases the beetles will 
be found ‘clinging to the stone in the part which was 
formerly the roof of a gallery.” 
When an insect is seen, it is easily picked up with 
a dead grass stem dipped in methylated spirit, or with a 
small brush, most of these small forms being too deli- 
cate to handle with forceps. Beetles taken in separate 
nests should be kept in separate tubes along with their 
host ants. 
This method is good for specimens that are to be 
carded on the return home, but if observations are to be 
made, they should be placed alive into a small glass tubé 
along with several of the ants, and some larvae and 
pupae. Many things can then be seen with the aid of a 
lens, such as their mode of walking, movements of the 
antennae, or how they contract their legs when alarmed, rit 
CinGy = 
As regards the. nests of large and pugnacious species 
of ants, to which Mr, Steel has referred, I may say that, to 
examine their nests during the summer months would be 
almost an impossibility. 
It is during the winter months that the majority of 
the ants’-nest insects are to be found, and more especi- 
cally after rain. It may be that the rain drives them to 
‘the top of the nest, by flooding the lower. galleries, ox 
perhaps they are following the larvae and pupae, which 
the ants have already carried to the top galleries. ; 
I have not yet dug out any nests, but to do this suc- 
cessfully the whole of the dug-up material would have to 
be passed through sieves. The nests of the ‘‘bulldog 
ants’? (Myrmecia) can be examined with comparative ~ 
