Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-06-13
COncerning Loeusts,

The seventeen year locusts are having
an uprising of the North" through GER
tain portions of the State. A writer in
the New York Evening Post gives some
interesting particulars regarding these IT,
sects and their periodical visits. It is
stated that there are eight or nine families
or broOds of them throughout the country,
each Of which appears at periods of exact
ly seventeen years intervening. The
writer says that the greater number come
up out of the ground on the same day, in
the evening, between sunset and dark.
There are few places-One in Loudon
county, Virginia-where they appear
twice in that time, owing to the fact that
two families overlap; but the two vista
tiOns always make the exact period Of sew
enteen years. This circumstance has
given rise to the popular impression in
some places that calling them seventeen
year loeusts is not correct; and we hear
of the seTen-year, ten or nine-year To-
Gusts.
But there is no fact better established in
entomology than the exact periOdicity of
the return of these lOcusts. Records have
been kept for more than century of the
family in Eastern Pennsylvania, and there
are men living who have seen them in
1900, 1917, 1884 and 1851, and expect to
meet them again in 1868.
In their winged state, the locusts eat
nothing. While in the ground they live
by suction of sap, attaching themselves to
the roots of trees. If they are injurious
at any time it is in this state, BY exhaust
ing the sap; and from records kept by
some cider-making families in Railway,
New Jersey, there is reason to believe thai
the apple crop is a good deal dependent
upon the age of the locusts. The first half
of their lives, or for eight or nine years
after each appearance, the cider crop has
been found to be the largest.
A variety of locusts exists in Brazil, the
noise Of & single one of which may be
heardia mile.
The writer closes witb the following
suggestions as to the instinct Of she To-
Gust: Il
ain this world of wonders in which we
live nothing is more wonderful than the
instincts of insects, and the locust can
teach US many lessons. How can they
know, after cropping about in the dark, far
under ground, for nearly seventeen years,
the exact day when all are to come up
How should they know that it is be-t to
come in the dusk Of the evening Who
tells them that in the critical time of their
transformation-While casting off their
subterranean ooat-they will be helpless;
that for time they will be white, and thus
be peculiarly exposed to their enemies, the
birds, but that in the night the birds will
be asleep2 Who tells them that as soon
as they emerge from the ground they must
direct their course towards the nearest
tree2 And who teaches them how to know
q tree2 Eyes to them, for the seventeen
years of their lives, had been as useless as
10 the fishes in the Mammoth Cave, but
still they know that when that old coat is
cast off their wings will be liberated; and
to give them a better chance to expand,
they must be in such position that gray
ity may help TO unfold them. During this
process, lasting about half an hour, the
locust always stands erect, the fluids Of
the body seem TO rush into the cells Of the
wings, and the weight unfolds them
Place them in a different position, and this
delicate process is often spoiled