232 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
the bubble is seized. The little creature then descends more i 
rapidly and regains its cell, always by the same route, turns th, 
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 (. Hydrachna entente), 
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 
