CHAPTER XVIII 

 THE NET-MAKING CADDIS WORM 



ACCURATE accounts of insect architecture, espe- 

 J\. cially if written with vivacity, are and always 

 have been interesting. Not only students of entomol- 

 ogy, but the general public, have taken rare pleasure 

 in noting the structures reared by the more gifted and 

 better -known representatives of the insect world. 

 Doubtless this interest and this pleasure result largely 

 from the contrast between the insignificant size and 

 limited powers of these creatures and their compara- 

 tively vast and ingenious creations. 



The architecture of such social insects as ants, bees, 

 and wasps is wrought by the adult, or imago. The 

 immature individuals are helpless charges upon the 

 community, and upon them centre its chief concern, 

 labor, and skill. In this respect they resemble human 

 infants; and it may be that to this fact is due the de- 

 velopment of those striking suggestions of human com- 

 munal methods which many observers note in their 

 behavior. Not until they have passed their pupal state 

 and gained maturity do they enter upon an active 

 career and begin to contribute to the general achieve- 

 ments of their race. The architectural instinct awakens 

 with that sense of communal responsibility which comes 

 with the adult stage. 



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