CHAPTER VIII 



THE CADDIS-WORM 



'Y^/'HOM shall I lodge in my glass trough, 

 kept permanently wholesome by the ac- 

 tion of the water-weeds ? I shall keep Caddis- 

 worms, those expert dressers. Few of the self- 

 clothing insects surpass them in ingenious at- 

 tire. The ponds in my neighbourhood supply 

 me with five or six species, each possessing an 

 art of its own. To-day, but one of these shall 

 receive historical honours. 



I obtain it from the muddy-bottomed, stag- 

 nant pools crammed with small reeds. As far 

 as one can judge from the habitation merely, 

 it should be, according to the specialists, Lim- 

 nophihis flavicornis, whose work has earned 

 for the whole corporation the pretty name 

 of Phryganea, a Greek term meaning a bit of 

 wood, a stick. In a no less expressive fash- 

 ion, the Provencal peasant calls it lou porto- 

 fais, lou porto-caneu. This is the little grub 

 that carries through the still waters a faggot 

 of tiny fragments fallen from the reeds. 



182 



