382 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



feather, and silk are useful to the fly-fisher, and are known to 

 anglers by the eccentric nomenclature by which such imitations 

 are called. It is the larva in which the angler delights, and it 

 is chiefly of the larva that our present description will treat. 



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

 the perfect insect. 



In the breeding season, the female may bo 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 

 a long oval in shape, and is bent sharply in the middle, its ex- 

 tremities being attached to Ihe abdomen of the insect. "When her 

 instinct tells her of the proper time, she proceeds to the water, 

 and attaches the eggs to the leaf of some aquatic plant, often 

 crawling down the stem for several inches. The Caddis Fly is 

 quite at home on the water, and, unlike the dragon flies, which 

 are quite helpless when immersed, can run on the surface with 

 considerable speed, and on occasion can swim below the surface 

 with scarcely less rapidity. 



They may often be observed in the act of running on the 

 water, and while they are thus employed, they often fall victims 

 to some hungry fish, which is attracted by the circling ripples 

 occasioned by the movement of the limbs. Fly-fishers, who are 

 acquainted with the habits of fishes and insects, take advantage 

 of their knowledge, and by causing their imitation Caddis Fly 

 to ripple over the surface, or even to sink beneath it, like the 

 veritable insect, delude the unsuspecting fish into swallowing a 

 liook instead of a fly. 



In process of time the eggs are hatched, and the young larvae 

 then proceed to construct houses in which they can dwelL These 

 houses are formed of various materials and are of various shapes, 

 and, indeed, not only does each species have its own particular 

 form of house, but there is considerable variety even in the houses 

 of a single species. In the accompanying illustration are shown 

 a number of the nests formed by the Caddis Fly in its larval 

 state, together with the perfect insects. AU the figures have been 

 drawn from actual specimens, some of which are in the British 

 Museum, and others in my own collection. The materials of 

 which the nest is made, depend greatly on the locality in which 

 the insect is hatched, and in a rather large series of Caddis 



