232 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



the bubble is seized. The little creature then descends more 

 rapidly and regains its cell, always by the same route, turns the 

 abdomen within it, and disengages the bubble/ 



The Water Spider places her eggs in this cell, spinning a 

 saucer-shaped cocoon, and fixing it against the inner side of the 

 cell and near the top. In this cocoon are about a hundred 

 eggs, of a spherical shape, and very small. The cell is a true 

 home for the spider, which passes its earliest days under the 

 water, and when it is strong enough to construct a sub-aquatic 

 home for itself, brings its prey to the cell before eating it. 



The colour of the Water Spider is brown, with a greyish surface 

 caused by the thick growth of hair which covers the body, and 

 with a very slight tinge of red on the cephalothorax. The 

 reader must not confound this creature with another Arachnid 

 that is sometimes called the Water Spider (Hydrac/ma cruentd)^ 

 and is of a bright scarlet colour, with a peculiar velvety 

 surface. 



There is an order of insects which is especially dear to 

 anglers ; not so much to fly-fishers, as to those who like to sit 

 and look at a float for several consecutive hours. This order is 

 scientifically termed Trichoptera, or Hair-winged insects, and 

 the various species of which it is composed are classed together 

 under the familiar title of Caddis Flies. 



These insects may always be known by the peculiar leathery 

 aspect of the body, and by the coating of hair with which the 

 wings are covered, the long hairs being spread over the whole 

 surface, and standing boldly out like a fringe round the edge. 

 They all have long and slender antennae, and in some genera, 

 such as Mystacida, these organs are nearly three times as long 

 as the head and body. 



We will now trace the life of the Caddis Fly from the egg to 

 the perfect insect. 



In the breeding season, the female may be observed to carry 

 about with her a double bundle of little greenish eggs, probably 

 in order to expose them for a certain time to the warm sunbeams 

 before they are immersed in the water. This curious bundle is 



