The soldiers are very curious looking creatures; the peculiar oval or rounded heads produced into an awl-like point in front, the centre being filled with a clear honey-like fluid; this is discharged down the projecting snout and smothers their enemies, because they have no true jaws above the mouth: most of them are much darker brown insects than the other termites. The two species, _Eutermes fumigatus_, the darker, smaller species, and _E. fumipennis_, the lighter tinted, are common in the vicinity of Sydney. [Illustration: =Fig. 14.=--Typical nest, of the Spinifex termite (_Eutermes triodiae_) (Froggatt), about 14 feet high. Hall’s Creek, Kimberley, W.A. (Original photo. Mansbridge.)] Family 4. Web-spinners. EMBIIDAE. These rare and curious little chocolate brown creatures are elongate in form, not unlike a slender adult termite after it has shed its wings, and they form another group that has puzzled entomologists in regard to their classification. Only twenty species are known from all parts of the world; but from their affinities to prehistoric insects they have been carefully studied. Grassi worked at the life-history of a species found in Southern Europe under stones: Wood-Mason has figured and described Indian forms and placed them in the Orthoptera: Perkins says that the species in Hawaii is common on tree trunks where they conceal themselves under a fine web like spiders. [Illustration: Plate IV.--ORTHOPTERA. Family TERMITIDAE. Termitarium of the Great Mound-nest White Ant, _Eutermes pyriformis_ (Froggatt). Palmerston, Port Darwin, N. Australia. (Original photo. N. Holtz.)] [Illustration: _Plate IV.--ORTHOPTERA._] [Illustration: =Fig. 15.=--_Oligotoma gurneyi_ (Froggatt). The web spinning embiid. With a diagram showing the primitive structure of wing. (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.)]