I 



V CADDIS-WORMS 269 



they begin to make cases for themselves. We have 

 very little information as to the actual process of 

 egg-laying. Female Caddis-flies have been seen to 

 descend into the water, and are not uncommonly 

 found in a dirty condition, as if they had been 

 immersed in muddy water. The last joints of the 

 legs are often much dilated in the female, but not in 

 the male fly. This points to resting on the surface 

 of the water during egg-laying. 



Entomologists are by no means agreed as to the 

 proper position of the Caddis-flies (Trichoptera) in 

 the system of Insects. Reaumur treated them as a 

 particular sort of Lepidoptera, calling them teignes 

 aquaticpies. In favour of a close alliance with that 

 order might be alleged the four wings, clothed with 

 hairs, essentially agreeing with the scales of Lepi- 

 doptera, and sometimes not unlike them in form ; 

 the attitude of the wings and antennae of the resting 

 Insects, which is very like that of some small Moths ; 

 and the reduction of most of the mouth-parts of the 

 imago to functionless rudiments, as in many Moths. 

 The maxillary and labial palps are, however, much 

 more complete than in most Lepidoptera.^ Even the 

 mode of life of the larva, the aquatic habitat, and the 

 sheath or case can be matched among Lepidoptera. 

 The pupa of Micropteryx, a genus of Tineina (small 

 Moths), resembles a Caddis-pupa in the circumstance 

 that its appendages are not glued down, but distinct 

 and mobile. Moreover, the large pupal mandibles 

 are used to extricate the Moth from its subterranean 



1 In Micropteryx and some other Lepidoptera the palps are as 

 well developed as in most Trichoptera. 



