The typical TERMITINAE comprise nearly all the species that build regular mounds, containing countless thousands of individuals. _Termes lacteus_ is the common species that does so much mischief to buildings about Sydney, and though not a mound builder about the city, yet from Colo Vale to Victoria and also northward it forms tall rounded nests up to six feet high and very regular in structure. The soldier is about ¼ inch long, with a bright, yellow, pear shaped head, and a pair of curved jaws; it also has an opening in the front of the head above the jaws from which it can discharge a globule of milk-like fluid when disturbed. This species with several allied forms has been placed in the genus _Coptotermes_. _Termes meridionalis_ has a small soldier, almost white, with a rounded yellow head armed with two slender curved jaws, and an incurved tooth in the centre of the inner margin; it measures a little over ⅙ of an inch in length. It has a world wide reputation on account of building what is known as the “Magnetic Nest,” built like a brick wall and always pointing north and south, with the wall facing east and west. Jack (Pro. Royal Society, Queensland, 1897) considers that this is done by the termites always building towards the rising sun; so that, as they work at night, the clay will dry rapidly. They are found in several localities on Cape York and near Port Darwin. Several very distinct species are found in the interior. _Termes perniger_ ranges from Kalgoorlie W.A. to Western Queensland; the soldier is a very dark coloured insect with a very large head furnished with large powerful toothed jaws, and is very savage. _T. rubriceps_ is found in small colonies in Central Australia, forming their nests at the roots of the tussocks of spinifex grass. _T. krisiformes_, a species in which the soldier has slender irregular jaws like a Malay kris, makes tiny little mounds about Bulli N.S.W. or forms colonies under the shelter of a log. [Illustration: =Fig. 13.=--Nest of White Ant (_Eutermes fumipennis_) (Walker), upon the summit of a rock where a small stump had been situated. Manly, near Sydney, N.S.W. (Original photo. W.W.F.)] The members of the genus _Eutermes_ are common all over Australia; they construct hard woody nests seldom more than a foot or two high; though at the same time, the largest known termitarium is also built by one species, _Eutermes pyriformis_, pillar shaped and often 18 feet in height, probably in the first instance commenced over a dead tree trunk.