NEUROPTERA. 59 



all directions. In the imago state the whole respiratory 

 organization is changed, the gills are cast aside, and the 

 insect now breathes by means of stigmata. 



The term " Maj^-fly" is indefinite, standing for various 

 kinds of insects in different counties. In Shropshire we 

 restrict the word to the E. vulgata. It is quite an error 

 to suppose that May-flies {Epliemeridoj) are produced 

 from the stick-baits or caddis worms, so common in 

 every stream and pond ; these are the larvse of the 

 PhryganidcG, another family of Neuropterous insects. 

 The terms caddis, cadow, caddice, are sometimes used to 

 denote the May-fly. The derivation of the word is 

 probably from the German Kbder, " bait," these 

 Ephemera njaiipha being abundantly consumed by trout 

 and other fish just before assuming their winged state. 

 Isaac Walton, however, appears to have held the erro- 

 neous notion that the May-flies were produced from the 

 stick-bait ; he says, " He loves the May-fly which is 

 bied of the cod- worm or caddis, and these make the 

 trout bold and lusty ;" and Latham, in his "' Large 

 Dictionary," perpetuates the error, for under Caddis^ 

 he writes, " a kind of worm or grub (generally the 

 larva of the May-fly), found under water in a case of 

 straw." 



Let the reader sit by the bank of a stream some 

 sunny afternoon the last week in May or the first in 

 June, and he will witness the birth of thousands of 

 May-flies. On coming to the surface of the water the 

 nympha wriggles and struggles vigorously ; the skin of 

 the back splits and out comes a winged insect which 

 flutters and flounders about till, if spared by fish, it 

 gains the bank, the empty nympha skin floating dovi?n 



