BY R. J. TILLYARD. 667 



under our notice. I must content myself, therefore, with calling 

 it larva X, and trust that in course of time I may be able to 

 breed it out and solve the problem. 



Of the two larvse taken, one was killed and mounted for my 

 collection. It is interesting to note that with this hard-skinned 

 larva, 1 was able simply to drop it into boiling water, pick it out 

 again, and mount it on cardboard, without any shrinking or 

 change of shape taking place. The specimen is to-day exactly as 

 it was on first mounting, and in perfect preservation. It was 

 nearly full-fed, judging by the size of its wing-cases, which 

 reached to the end of the third abdominal segment. The second 

 specimen, which I kept alive, was not quite so large, and had 

 somewhat smaller wing-cases. 



During three succeeding visits to Heathcote, in October and 

 November, 1908, I was very disappointed at failing to obtain 

 another specimen of this peculiar larva. Nor have I succeeded 

 during 1909 and 1910, in obtaining a single specimen, though I 

 have carefully dredged the creek several times. Nor have I, 

 amongst the numerous exuviae collected, ever found this species. 



I did not doubt, for a moment, when I first placed this larva 

 in a small jar for ob.servation, that I should succeed in breeding 

 it out during the summer of 1908-09. I suj)[»lied it with plenty 

 of food, chiefly mosquito-larvue and small insect-larvae picked out 

 of the trash of the creek-bed. In the jar there was plenty of 

 water- weed growing, and a strong stick was placed in an upright 

 position for use on emerging. The larva settled at the foot of 

 this stick head downwards, ate three mosquito-larvai which I drove 

 almost into its mouth, and then remained in this position, day 

 after day for weeks, without taking the slightest interest in 

 anything. Once or twice I got up at midnight and found it 

 climbing up the side of the jar or walking round the edge, so that 

 I concluded that it was a nocturnal feeder. 



By the middle of December, 1908, all the other larvae which I 

 had collected had emerged. 'J'he larva X was, however, still in 

 its old position on the stick, had undergone no ecdysis, and did 



