West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Friday 13 February 1931, page 12


A NATURE MAGAZINE.

The 'Australian Museum Magazine' is an atractively prepared and popular natural history periodical which circulates generally throughout Australia, and the

January-March number, which has been received at this office, maintains the general excellence of past issues. Several interesting articles deal with spiders and insects, and one on 'Some Common Spiders of the Sydney District' gives an account of many well-known Australian spiders, with clear photographs and diagrams of their appearance and structure, mention being made of the only two Australian spiders whose bite has been proved as fatal to human beings — the funnel web spiders (Atrax) and the red spot spireds (Latrodectus). Miss Nancy B. Adams gives instructive hints on the preservation of insects and spiders, and Mr. K. C. McKeown has an article en-titled 'Ants' Cows and Cow-Sheds,' which treats of the remarkable habit of ants of tending and "milking'' aphides. 'The process of 'milking' may be observed, either with the naked eye or with the aid of a lens, on almost any rose bush where aphides are found attended by the ants. An ant approaches ft feeding aphid and strokes it rapidly and lightly with its antennae, and the aphid, evidently pleased with this attention, almost immediately exudes a drop of honey-like liquid, which is eagerly consumed by the ant.' A_ feature oi the publication is the wealth of illustrations, one of which, an illustration of the restored head of a large extinct Australian lizard of the monitor or racehorse type, gives one an extraordinarily good idea of what must have been a menacing brute. It was a much more formidable creature than the Komodo dragons. Other informative and well illustrated articles deal with sea slugs, the external structure of birds and a nature ramble to Trial Bay on the North Coast.