292 THE DRY-FLY MAN'S HANDBOOK j 



captivity. In the same way I am able to assert as 

 a fact that the duration of the life of the insect 

 from the egg to the imago is approximately one 

 year. 



It will be seen from the foregoing life history that 

 at no time during its winged existence has the alder 

 any occasion to be on or near the water. The eggs 

 are laid on the sedge, the baby larva crawls into the 

 water, lives until it is full grown in the mud, and 

 makes its way ashore before pupating. The pupa 

 develops into an imago in the ground, the imago 

 emerges and oviposits on the sedges, rushes, or coarse 

 grass. 



In all sincerity no doubt angling writers have for 

 generations averred that they have seen alders in 

 great numbers on the surface of the stream, but evi- 

 dently they are in error. As before stated, individuals 

 may be forced on to the water by a hurricane or 

 heavy thunderstorm, but these are only rare cases, 

 and brought about by pure accident. Any observer 

 who doubts these assertions can prove or disprove 

 them himself The next time he thinks he sees great 

 numbers of alders on the water, let him catch, say, 

 twenty specimens in one of the three collecting 

 nets, and I venture to prophesy that at the out- 

 side two may possibly be alders and the remaining 

 eighteen will be caddis-flies, and in all human 

 probability he will find these eighteen are all speci- 

 mens of the Welshman's button (Sericostoma per- 

 sonatum). 



