I PHOTOGRAPHED the insect above during a trek to Gunung Trusmadi in Sabah in March 1990. It is very possibly a male lycid (net-winged) beetle, although I have to admit that I cannot positively identify it. The ‘feathery’ antennae are distinctive, and I have seen pictures of mounted specimens of male lycid beetles with this type of antennae. I have also seen a picture of a male lycid beetle, another mounted specimen, with this two-tone colour pattern on the wings.

Alvin Wong Tze Chin’s article, “Trilobite larvae – a new understanding” (Nature Malaysiana, Vol.20 No.1, March 1995), is profusely illustrated with photos of living specimens of female trilobite larvae of various species. There are three photos of mounted specimens of the males of three species, Duliticola paradoxa described from Sarawak by E. Mjöberg in 1925, a newly discovered species (not named) from Ranong in Thailand, and a species collected from the Gombak area, outside Kuala Lumpur.

In fact, in the Gombak area in the early 1980s, I photographed an insect (see picture below) which I now believe to be a male lycid beetle. I have also seen a female trilobite larva on Gunung Bunga Buah in Selangor, but was not able to photograph it. Both the male specimens that I have photographed were about 1cm in length, much bigger than the 1/5-inch beetle that Mjöberg eventually discovered after nearly two years in the forests of Sarawak.

I am quite sure that few people have seen a male lycid beetle. Those who have seen one would not possibly have linked it to the trilobite larva, unless they are entomologists with a special interest in these insects. If you are one such entomologist, or if you can positively identify these two specimens somehow, please let me know. Muchos gracias.