Tis of wonderful construction

Edward Newman, The insect hunters and other poems, Londres, Van Voorst, 1861, p. 55-56.

Caddisflies, PHRYGANEINA,

Simulate the moths so nearly

That the student fist beginning

Finds the likenes quite confusing.

They have hairy wings and bodies,

Long antennae, manyjointed,

Very, very manyjointed,

Always stretched out straight before them ;

The hind wings are folded lengthwise

Underneath the hairy fore wings,

Caddis larvae are aquatic,

Living always in the water,

In a case of their own making.

Habitation locomotive ;

‘Tis of wonderful construction ;

Sometimes made of tiny pebles,

Sometimes of the smallet shailshells,

Sometimes of small bits of rushes,

Or of leaves long soaked in water,

Always neatly joined together,

Always joined with silk together.

In these wellconstructed mansions

Every Caddis has its dwelling.

Reaching out its head and fore legs

It devours the sodden edges

Of the waterweeeds and grasses,

And the leaves of weeping willows

Gently dipping under water.