148 INSECTS. 



squarish pieces of leaves, arranged however with some 

 regularity in a spiral direction. This case has little 

 "beauty when old and brown, and of this the small tailor 

 or tentmaker within seems to be aware. The writer 

 once turned a handful of these creatures, with soddened 

 dingy-brown coats, looking as if made of old tea-leaves, 

 into a glass full of fresh -growing water-plants. It was 

 a most amusing sight to see the eagerness with which 

 the whole party instantly set to work to cut themselves 

 out new coats, which they constructed patch by patch, 

 cutting away a fragment of brown leaf, and sewing on a 

 piece of green leaf alternately, till they all turned out as 

 smart as a party of Kobin Hood's merry men. Their 

 appearance during the process, however, was anything but 

 handsome. 



Others make their cases of pieces of stick placed 

 either across, sticking out on all sides, or cut into equal 

 lengths, and lying parallel with each other and with the 

 body of the larva, arranged in an exquisite spiral form. 

 Some build up their cases of grains of sand, forming a 

 thin, smooth, shell-like tube, slightly curved and tapering. 

 Others, and these are amongst the most beautiful, cover 

 themselves with small fresh-water shells, and it is really 

 hard to believe that it is unwittingly that they choose 

 the most beautiful forms of these. These cases are all 

 held together, and generally lined with silken threads 

 spun by the Iarva3. Some are at liberty in the water, 

 others are attached to plants, &c., and do not move. 



A iady has recently made some amusing experiments 

 with the Caddis larvae. Inducing them to leave their 

 cases by tickling the end of the body (where certain 

 hooks enable the insect to retain their hold of the case) ; 

 she provided them with fragments of glass, gold beads, 



