Makes you wonder a bit about the Caddis in all the rivers prior to the Gold Rush, it might’ve been more lucrative to scare the trout away and collect them yourself.

French artist Hubert Duprat creates jewelry using case building Caddis, remove the larva from it’s “low rent” quarters – insert him near gold flakes, pearls, and other precious objects, and he’ll make a pricier case fit for art.

To begin with, I put the insect in a gold-filled environment for as long as it takes the creature to form a rough case. The larva must be able to move around in its new case and be picked up without any risk of breaking the fragile construction. First, I only provided the larvae with gold spangles, but then I gradually added beads of turquoise, opal, lapis lazuli and coral, as well as rubies, sapphires, diamonds, hemispherical and Baroque pearls, and tiny rods of 18-karat gold.

Thankfully insects possess enormous strength relative to their size, because the exchange of sand and gravel for gold is a significant weight issue. It’d sure be nice to train a couple thousand in gold recovery. Sprinkle them out of your pocket while wading, the slow learners become bait – while the rest return bearing nuggets.

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