Caddis fly

“ A butterfly pupa, like the imago, has no mandibles, but in the case of the Caddis-flies (Trichoptera) and two families of small moths, the most primitive of all Lepidoptera, the pupa, like the larva, has well-developed mandibles. These enable the caddis pupa to bite its way out of the shortened larval case in which it has pupated, and then to swim upwards through the water ready for the caddis-fly's emergence into the air. Pupae that are submerged require special breathing-organs. ”

“ The female caddis fly lays her eggs in the water. She sometimes even crawls down right into the water to lay them.
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“A tiny caddis grub, no bigger than this pin-head, comes out of each egg. As soon as he hatches out, he begins to build his case, to eat, and to grow; and from the moment of his birth up to the closing up of his tube, he is scarcely a moment idle.”
Exercises on Lesson XIV. 1. Turn a caddis worm out of his case in the way described in the lesson. Place the insect in a saucer half filled with water, and make a rough sketch of it. 2. ”

“ The caddis worm, or larva of the caddis fly, builds its home of sticks and stones or twigs, and thereby not only preserves its soft body from injury, but also harmonizes with its surroundings, in the same way as does the soldier on active service in time of war. ”

“ The caddis worm has extraordinary jaws which he can fold up when they are in the way, and he can also push himself along in the water by squirting out a strong jet of water all round him. A caddis worm is really only the larva of a large sort of dragon fly; so when he wants to change into a winged insect, he cleverly spins a silken door across each end of his tubular house, and fixes it on to the stalk of a plant near the water. Then he waits till his wings have grown, and at last he crawls out and runs up the plant out of the water, and flies away into the sunshine. ”

“ When it has reached the goal, it lifts the rear end a little above the water and gives a stroke of the piston. The vacuum thus obtained fills with air. That is enough: skiff and boatman are in a position to float. The now useless support of the grasses is abandoned. The time has come for evolutions on the surface, in the glad sunlight.
The caddis worm possesses no great talent as a navigator. To turn round, to tack about, to shift its place slightly by a backward movement is all that it can do ”

“ But many small creatures build individual shells or cases wholly for defense against enemies. These are frequently carried about with the creature, as armor, wherever it goes. A familiar example, found in any brooklet, is seen in the case of the young caddis-fly. To hide and protect itself from the ever-hungry fishes, the larva of this insect incloses its body in a tube formed by gluing together bits of wood, shells, sand, and all sorts of matter that may be found at the bottom of a stream. ”

“ When the bricklayer is building the narrow shaft of a factory chimney, he stands in the center of his turret and turns round and round while gradually laying new rows. The caddis worm acts in the same way. It twists round in its sheath; it adopts without inconvenience whatever position it pleases, so as to bring its spinneret full face with the point to be gummed. There is no straining of the neck to left or right, no throwing back of the head to reach points behind. The animal has constantly before it, within the exact range of its implements, the place at which the bit is to be fixed. ”

“ It is, however, the work of an insect, and not of man, and is magnified in order to show its structure better.
Any of my readers who may happen to be entomologists or anglers, or both, are familiar with the Caddis-worm of our fresh waters. Most of us know that the Caddis is the grub or larva of the Stone-fly (Phryganea) , an insect haunting the waterside, and so moth-like in its general aspect that many persons think that it is really a brown moth. The changes or metamorphoses of these insects are well worthy of notice. ”

“ The only creature of the insect kind that I can recommend for general adoption is the caddis worm, a comical and interesting creature, that can never mar the beauty of the tank. Half-a-dozen may be thrown in, and searched for occasionally—the search will always be well rewarded. When the cad closes his hybernacle, it will be desirable to remove it to a jar, to obtain a better opportunity of witnessing the transformation of the dormant worm into a four-winged fly of Stephens's family of Phryganea. ”

“ The caddis may be at times, with very good effect, joined to a worm, and sometimes to an artificial fly, to cover the point of the hook, and also two or three together may be put upon the hook; but it is always to be angled with at the bottom, especially when by itself, with the finest tackle, and at all seasons is a most holding bait for trout and grayling.—Daniel. ”

“ Probably we shall find bubbles of air collecting round some of the insects, within their pockets; as the time approaches nearer and nearer for the change to the perfect insect to take place the bubbles grow larger and larger. Eventually the fly emerges within a bubble, shakes it free from the pocket and floats to the surface of the water without wetting its wings.
The pond will supply insects quite as interesting as the running stream. Here we may find the eggs of Caddis flies, enclosed in jelly-like envelopes, rope-like, horse-shoe shaped or simple masses. ”

“ Caddice, Caddis, kad′dis, n. the larva of the May-fly and other species of Phryganea, which lives in water in a sheath formed of fragments of wood, stone, shell, leaves, &c., open at both ends—caddis-worms form excellent bait for trout.—n. Cad′dis-fly.
Caddie, kad′i, n. a lad who attends a golfer at play, carrying his clubs: in 18th century a messenger or errand porter in Edinburgh. ”

“ They had none of the fat placidity of the suckers. One or another of them, with [Pg 149] his gold and silver and vermilion glinting up through the pellucid gloom, would be forever on the move, quartering the bottom for caddis and beetle, and now and then sailing up toward the surface to investigate some floating atom that may chance to be a fly. Sometimes it was a fly, or a moth, or a caterpillar or some edible berry. And sometimes, too, the slow circling of the current in the pool would bring it close to that still watcher on the root before it caught the eye of the feeding fish. ”

“ Among gentlemen-fishermen, on the other hand, so deep is the ignorance of the natural fly, that I have known good sportsmen still under the delusion that the great green May-fly comes out of a caddis-bait ”

“ I am ready to see its origin in the persecutions of the Dytiscus and other pirates. Necessity is the mother of industry.
Certain caddis worms, of the Sericostoma and Leptocerus species, clothe themselves in grains of sand and do not leave the bed of the stream. On a clear bottom, swept by the current, they walk about from one bank of verdure to the other and do not think of coming to the surface to float and sail in the sunlight. The collectors of sticks and shells are more highly privileged. ”

“ Some of them make occasional foraging expeditions to considerable distances from home. Others have the interesting habit of spinning nearby a tiny net fastened and stretched in such a way that its broad shallow mouth is directed upstream, so that the current may bring into it the small aquatic creatures which serve these caddis-fishermen as food. The caddis flies live several months, and according to Howard some pass the winter in the larval stage. ”

“ Of course the locality will determine In great measure the natural flies which the angler must approximate with his artificials, the duns having precedence practically everywhere, but the caddis flies, Trichoptera, are quite certain to be prevalent at times, and also the stone flies, Plecoptera; in addition there are many small two-winged insects, Diptera, which occasionally appear on the water. However, the strictly water-bred flies, such as the May flies and duns, caddis and stone flies, are practically the only ones with which the angler is intimately concerned. ”

“ The attendants of Cadmus, in searching for water, had entered a grove sacred to Mars, which was guarded by a mighty dragon. On perceiving him, they turned to fly, but were either crushed in the serpent’s folds, or suffocated by blasts of the monster’s fiery breath. Cadmus, awaiting their return, and becoming impatient at the delay, proceeded to the spot, and found his servants lifeless, while the dragon was basking at his ease upon the grass. The hero, aroused to vengeance, attacked the monster. A terrible combat ensued, in which Cadmus, through the assistance of Minerva, was victorious. ”

“ The caddis-flies belong to this order—brownish insects with long thread-like feelers and broad wings, which are folded tentwise over the body when they are not being used. They are very common near ponds and streams, in which they pass the earlier part of their lives, living down at the bottom in most curious cases, which cover them entirely up with the exception of their heads. ”

“ It would be swallowed almost immediately, but the mouth of the stickleback is much too small to admit an entire caddis, and the skin of the grub is too tough to be easily pierced or torn. Half-an-hour often elapses before the great question is settled, and the caddis eaten.
The rapidity of the evolutions and the fierceness of the struggle must be seen to be appreciated—and it is a spectacle easily to be witnessed; wherever there are sticklebacks, caddis worms are nearly certainly found, and it only needs to extract one of these from its case and deposit it judiciously in the water. ”

“ The head with the mouth-parts, and the thorax with the long strong legs, are the only parts of the body that project from the protecting case, and hence need to be specially hardened. At the posterior tip of the abdomen is a pair of strong hooks pointing outward. These hooks can be fastened into the sides of the case and thus hold the larva safely in its house.... The caddis worm crawls slowly about searching for food, which consists of vegetable matter. Those larvae which have fixed cases have to leave it in search of food. ”

“ My glass pond was at first occupied by a dozen Water-beetles, whose diving performances are so curious to watch. One day, meaning no harm and for want of a better place to put them, I fling among them a couple of handfuls of Caddis-worms. Blunderer that I am, what have I done! The pirate Water-beetles, hiding in the rugged corners of the rockwork, at once perceive the windfall. They rise to the surface with great strokes of their oars; they hasten and fling themselves upon the crowd of carpenter Caddis-worms. ”

“ But while we watch something comes jerkily out of the end of the bundle—a black head and six busy legs, and soon the caddis is crawling along as fast as it can, dragging its house behind it. For the bundle of sticks is really a log house that the caddis has built for itself. ”

“ The pupa is incomplete, and is enclosed in the case constructed by the larva, a grating being formed at the end, apparently for the purpose of facilitating respiration. The perfect insects are usually termed caddice-flies, and are frequently used, as well as the larvæ, by anglers as a bait for fish. They fly heavily, and commonly settle on bushes near the water's edge. Most of them are of a brown colour, with little variety of markings. Probably about 200 different species inhabit this country. ”

“ When at rest, at the bottom of the pond, it fills the whole of the tube of its sheath. When it wishes to reach the top of the pond, it climbs up the reeds, dragging its house of sticks with it; then it sticks the front of its body out of the sheath, leaving a vacant space in the rear, like the vacuum in a pump when one draws out the piston. This promptly fills with air, enabling the Worm to float, sheath and all, just as the air in a life-preserver holds a person up in the water. The Caddis-worm does not need to cling to the grasses any longer. ”

“ And if it gets tired it does not have to walk home; it just walks in and goes to sleep under a nice, smooth stone. Some roam about and some stay at home. These creatures are pretty much like human beings in their ways.
"One of the young caddis-worms prefers fishing to walking, like some other young fellows I know. On a stone near its house it spins a fine web, turned up-stream, so that any tender little insects floating down-stream get lodged in it. An easy way to get your dinner—just to go to a net and eat." ”

“ Well, sir, the caddice-worm is the larva of a fly, and he makes a case for himself out of all sorts of bits of everything that happen to suit his particular fancy, dead or alive, sticks and stones and small shells with their owners in 'em, living as comfortable as ever. ”

“ The round tops of toadstools along the shore glowed pink. Dragonflies glinted in swift and angular flight, the metallic sheen of their bodies flashing in the redness. Great, yellow butterflies sailed lightly above the stream. In every direction upon the water appeared the scrap-formed boats of a thousand caddis-flies, floating at the surface while they might. Burl could have thrust his hand down into their cavities to seize the white worms nesting there.
The bulk of a tardy bee droned heavily overhead. He saw the long proboscis and the hairy hind-legs with their scanty load of pollen. ”