HOUSE AND GARDEN 
June, 
I9D 
425 
unprofitable “merry - go - round” 
continued for some time without 
any evidence of merriment. The 
final outcome was the hasty build¬ 
ing of a new retreat, whether by 
the interloper or the dispossessed 
I am, unfortunately, not able to 
say. 
Like most insects, the caddis 
spends the greater part of its life 
in the larval stage. Passing 
through a quiescent period of 
pupation, it emerges from the 
water as a delicate, gauzy-winged 
fly. The pleasures of an aerial 
life, however, are very brief, for 
after the eggs are laid the parents 
die within a few days. 
In the Catskills, where most of 
these observations were made, one 
of the most common varieties of larval 
cases is roughly constructed of sticks 
and stems or bits of bark sufficiently 
water-soaked to sink to the bottom. The 
posterior opening is reduced to a mere 
pinhole, either by fastening in small 
fragments or by weaving a partition of 
silk across the end of the cylinder, leav¬ 
ing a very small hole in the center. 
The larva, by an undulating movement 
of the body, causes a constant current 
of water to pass through the case and 
out this hole, thus furnishing a supply 
of fresh water for breathing. The res¬ 
piratory organs, unlike those of higher 
animals or even fishes, are located along 
the surface of the body. With such a 
breathing apparatus as this they 
must escape all annoyance from 
coughs, colds and adenoids. 
A much more perfectly con¬ 
structed variety of case is made 
of tiny stones of various shapes, gj 
sizes and colors, nicely fitted to¬ 
gether, forming a most beautiful 
little mosaic. The material is 
not collected at random, but 
stones are selected which will 
give the finished structure a 
comparatively even sur¬ 
face both inside and out. 
The posterior end of the 
case is covered by a single 
stone, leaving one or more 
minute openings around its 
edge for the circulation of 
water. This is one of the 
most beautiful varieties 
found in the Catskills. 
For six hundred years or 
more the mosaic of the 
Novicella at St. Peter’s in 
Rome has excited wonder 
and admiration, and yet it 
is almost appalling to re¬ 
flect that these lowly little 
One common variely of larval case is a rough slick and bark structure; an¬ 
other, more perfectly fashioned, is built of carefully-selected stones, 
curved and tapering. Pictures highly magnified 
A caddis’ house built after the fashion of a snail’s shell. 
The masonry in these is very remarkable, 
is 3/16 inch in diameter 
The original 
Three specimens of the stone-pile variety, the first showing the floor and the open¬ 
ing through which the larva feeds 
One interesting specimen is shaped like an oyster shell, with a cornucopia-shaped pocket 
on the upper side. It is half an inch long and moves very energetically 
creatures were diligently gather¬ 
ing stones, hewn out by Nature’s 
tools, and fitting them into their 
mosaic designs with marvelous 
skill thousands of years before the 
foundations of St. Peter’s were 
laid; while the arch-stones were 
resting in their geological beds. 
A variety somewhat similar to 
that just described is composed 
of fine grains of sand, slightly 
curved, and tapering toward the 
rear. 
An interesting, though not par¬ 
ticularly beautiful shelter, appears 
at first sight to be merely a little 
pile of stones. It is, however, de¬ 
signed with some care, for under 
this dome is a living-room with 
a floor of fine grains of sand 
through which there is an opening, 
allowing the inmate to feed upon 
minute vegetable matter without even 
his head appearing from under cover. 
This species, unlike the others men¬ 
tioned, prefers the most swiftly-running 
places in a stony brook, where they 
may be found by hundreds clinging to 
the sloping surfaces of rocks. They 
move about very little. After the larva 
has built his tent over him he proceeds 
to drag it about until a suitable pitching 
site is found, where he makes fast and 
remains as long as pastures are green. 
Nature, with all her endless re¬ 
sources, now and then seems to fall 
short of designs, so that we find ap¬ 
parent imitations or repetitions 
or accidental resemblances be¬ 
tween creatures of very widely 
separated stations in Nature’s 
scale. For instance, the arma¬ 
dillo with its horny shell is very 
suggestive of a turtle, the former 
belonging to the great order of 
mammals and the latter to the 
reptiles. Stranger still is the 
pangolin of Africa with its 
scaly covering, suggesting a pine- 
cone walking on four legs. 
The caddis, it would seem, 
also feels this lack of orig¬ 
inality; for once, while 
scanning the sand very 
closely at the edge of a 
Catskill Mountain brook, 
I found a number of what 
appeared to be tiny snail- 
shells three-sixteenths of 
an inch or less in diameter. 
Beginning at the apex, 
though much too small to 
be seen by the naked eye, 
the little spirals gradually 
widened in perfect curves, 
and curiously enough, 
