CHAPTER VIII 



INSECTS OF THE TROUT STREAM 



THE order Ephemeridae includes the 

 natural insects most important to the 

 dry fly-fisherman, the May flies and 

 other day or ephemeral flies; of the life his- 

 tory of these insects a fairly complete sketch 

 has been given in the preceding chapter. Of 

 course the locality will determine in great meas- 

 ure the natural flies which the angler must ap- 

 proximate with his artificials, the duns having 

 precedence practically everywhere, but the 

 caddis flies, Trichoptera, are quite certain to 

 be prevalent at times, and also the stone flies, 

 Plecoptera; in addition there are many small 

 two-winged insects, Diptera, which occasionally 

 appear on the water. However, the strictly 

 water-bred flies, such as the May flies and 

 duns, caddis and stone flies, are practically the 

 only ones with which the angler is intimately 

 concerned. 



The life histories of the caddis and stone 

 flies, with which the writer does not feel suf- 

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