i38 Dr. E. J. Tillyard on 



Sabatiiica, I found what I supposed to be a beetle larva. I 

 put it aside and had almost forgotten it when, on re-reading 

 one of your letters, I noticed your remark that the 

 Palaeontinidae (Jurassic fossil Lepidoptera) were supposed 

 to be closely related to the Limacodidae. Now the little 

 larva referred to is somewhat of the Limacodid type. It 

 has the characteristic spines which some of that family 

 have ; the prolegs are absent or vestigial ; the thoracic 

 legs feeble, and the head (apparently) retractile. We have 

 no Limacodidae in N. Z. ; therefore the larva may possibly 

 be that of Sabatinca. I am sending it to you, and expect 

 you will tell me it is the larva of a Malacoderm beetle or 

 some other common thing." 



The larva (in spirit) duly came to hand, and I recognised 

 it at once as a Micropterygid larva about half -grown, by 

 comparison with Dr. Chapman's well-known description 

 and also with first instar larvae of Micropteryx which he 

 had kindly sent me. The only species of the family occur- 

 ring in Mr. Philpott's immediate neighbourhood being 

 Sabatinca barbarica Philp., it was a reasonable supposition 

 that the larva belonged to that species. 



In December 1919 I met Mr. Philpott at Queenstown, 

 Lake Wakatipu, and together we climbed Ben Lomond 

 and searched in moss for larvae of . Sabatinca, without 

 success. Later on, in February 1920, while I was in 

 Dunedin, Mr. Philpott sent me two well-grown larvae of 

 S. barbarica, which he had found in moss brought from 

 Seaward Bush in Southland on February 10. One of these 

 was dead, but the other was alive, and was kept alive for 

 some time, finally dying from the heat of the Tropics while 

 I was on my way to England via Suez, in May 1920. A 

 third specimen found by Mr. Philpott at the same time was 

 kept alive by him for nearly two months. Although care- 

 fully watched, it was never seen to feed, and for the most 

 part remained quite inactive. This larva was unfortunately 

 lost on April 1, 1920, during Mr. Philpott's removal to 

 Nelson, where he had accepted the post of Assistant Entom- 

 ologist at the Cawthron Institute, shortly after my own 

 appointment to the Biological Department of the same 

 Institute. 



Mr. Philpott says of this larva : "Its appearance is pro- 

 tective. To the naked eye the dark lateral margin looks 

 like the midrib of a leaf, and makes the larva easy to be 

 passed over; also the lateral corrugations help to give 



