SOME AQUATIC WORMS, ETC. 167 



mass of jelly, huge in bulk when compared with the 

 size of the insect, the eggs appearing as distinct but 

 minute, often brownish, 

 specks, arranged in beauti- 

 fully regular rows. 



It is always interesting 

 as well as important for 



the collector to take home Pig 13K _ Chil . 6nomus larva . 

 all the little jelly-like egg 



masses which he may find attached to submerged objects. 

 If placed in a watch-glass or an "individual" butter-dish, 

 and the water kept fresh and pure, they will usually 

 hatch, and thus give the observer valuable information 

 often not otherwise obtainable. Chironomus eggs can 

 hardly be described so that the beginner shall recognize 

 them at first glance, but if once hatched at home they 

 will afterwards always be known. The first little mass 

 of jelly experimented with may prove to be snails' eggs, 

 but they will be none the less interesting. They may 

 also prove to be the eggs of water-mites (Chapter XI.). 

 The beginner will, of course, not mistake the green jelly 

 globules of Chaetophora for insect eggs. 



II. CILETONOTCS (Fig. 132). 



There are several species of these lithe and graceful 

 little creatures in our fresh waters, and they so closely 

 resemble each other in external form that they can 

 be distinguished only by the cuticular appendages, or 

 the coat-of-mail by which most of them are protected. 



