Sabatinca caustica is a species of moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 belonging to the family Micropterigidae

Micropterigidae

Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about 20 living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of Lepidoptera ....

. It was described by Edward Meyrick

Edward Meyrick

Edward Meyrick FRS was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern Microlepidoptera systematics....

 in 1912. It is known from New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

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Adults were found in October.

Original description

Wingspan 9-10 mm. Head and thorax bronzy-orange-ochreous, thorax sometimes marked with whitish. Antennae ochreous, towards apex blackish. Abdomen dark purple-grey. Forewings ovate-lanceolate, costa moderately arched, apex pointed, termen extremely obliquely rounded; violet-coppery-ochreous, in one specimen largely suffused with whitish; in one specimen a spot of dark purple-fuscous suffusion on dorsum towards base, one in disc beyond middle, and some irregular marking towards termen, and in the whitish-suffused specimen the dark purple-fuscous suffusion forms a blotch along anterior portion of costa connected with a large oblique blotch in middle of disc, a streak along dorsum from base to 2/3, a subterminal fascia enclosing a white spot on costa, and a mark along termen in middle, but in the other two specimens there are no markings: cilia golden-ochreous. Hindwings deep purple; cilia pale golden-ochreous.