the Larva and Pupa of the Genus Sabatinca. 439 



it a moss-leaf effect. The spines are similar to the spine- 

 like projections on the edges of the moss-leaves." 



It should be noted here that the supposed " mosa " on 

 which this larva was found proved on closer examination 

 to be a kind of liverwort. Unfortunately we have not 

 succeeded in getting any one to name it for us, though it 

 belongs to a type of Uverwort not at all uncommon in N. Z. 

 Later on, cocoons of Sabatinca incongruella Walk, were 

 found on a closely related species of liverwort near Nelson. 

 It would thus appear that the larvae of the genus Sabatinca 

 are in reality liverwort-feeders, not moss-feeders. It is 

 possible that the larvae of Micropteryx also feed upon liver- 

 wort, and that Dr. Chapman's inability to rear them com- 

 pletely on moss was due to his faihng to discover this fact. 



Two of the larvae sent to me by Mr. Philpott were 

 exhibited by me at the meeting of the Entomological Society 

 of London, together with two slides prepared from the 

 third specimen (these Proceedings, p. hv, 1920). They 

 were also exhibited later in the year at an entomological 

 meeting in Honolulu, T. H. (Proc. Haw, Ent. Soc, IV, 

 No. 3, Sept. 1921). 



While I was away from Nelson during the spring of 1920 

 (Sept. to Dec.) Mr. Philpott was in charge of the entomo- 

 logical work there. During a series of trips to the Dun 

 Mountain he found, at about 2500 feet elevation, several 

 species of Sabatinca, and collected from time to time 

 considerable amounts of moss and hverwort, some of which 

 was carefully examined for larvae, "without success, and 

 some was kept moist in a series of glass lamp-chimneys, in 

 the hope that something of interest might be bred from it. 

 I returned to Nelson on December 11, 1920. On December 

 30 we observed a freshly emerged female of Sabatinca 

 incongruella Walk, in one of these jars which contained 

 liverwort. An examination of the hverwort disclosed the 

 empty cocoon attached low down at the side of a stem of 

 liverwort in a very moist position, and the pupal skin was 

 found also, half-way or more out of the cocoon. This skin 

 was treated with 10 per cent. KOH, and expanded enough to 

 allow of careful drawings of the head to be made, as well 

 as giving a fairly clear idea of what the living pupa must 

 have been like. 



Publication of these results was delayed from time to 

 time, in the hope that further discoveries might enable us 

 to complete the hfe-history and present it as a complete 



