THE CADDIS FLY. 
233 
a long oval in shape, and is bent sharply in the middle, its ex- 
tremities being attached to the 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 
hook instead of a fly. 
In process of time' the eggs are hatched, and the young larvse 
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. All 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 
nests now before me, there are some very remarkable instances 
of the manner in which the insect has been obliged to adapt 
itself to circumstances. The most common style of case is that 
which is composed of a number of sticks and grass stems laid 
longitudinally upon each other like the fasces of the Roman 
consuls. Of these I have specimens of various sizes and shapes, 
some being barely half an inch long, while others measure four 
