A conchologist

Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, Labrador, the country and the people, New York, MacMillan, 1910, p. 438.

The caddis-flies constitue one of the most interesting groups of aquatic insects. They belong to the order, or hairy-winged insects. At first sight many of theses resemble a moth, but with a closer acquaintance no one need confuse the two. The peculiar habits of the larvae of the various species form one the most interesting studies of insect life. A bundle of little sticks, or a tube made of coarse grains of sand, moving mysteriously about the bottom of a stream or spring is apt to attract the attention of the most casual observer, but how few know what these are. They are the cases of the caddis-worms, the larvae of the caddis-flies, built to protect their soft bodies from their enemies. What adds so much to their interest is that each species has a very different method of house building, some preferring wood, others stone, but the caddis carpenter and massons do not always build in the same manner. Some place the sticks crosswise, while others arrange them longitudinally some have the curious habit of decorating by fastening shells, etc., to the outside of their house ; others make a case largely composed of pieces of leaves. The numerous massons seem to be very particular about the size of the stones and the shape and position of their domiciles. One will make a beautiful tube of sand, unattached, in which itwanders to all parts of the stream : another will make a spiral tube so closely resembling a snail-shell as to lead a conchologist to describe it as a mollusk. One, commonly observed in running streams, is made of a few samll pebbles attached to a large stone. Some of the dweller in these rude homes are also fishermen and construct o funnel-shaped net at their doors, with the opening upstream.