The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-02-18
Seventeen Year Locusts.
From the Baltimore Methodist.

anu IetuIueu ID 100 { 1OVu
! 1917, 1884 and 1851. We have no deiibt tha
they will again keep their appointed time, ane
that in afew. months their shrl CRY will conlpe
us to note that a generation is ready to- die, ane
IanQther to begin its seventeen years of shbter
ranean life, There are many of our readers who
are too young to remember ''the locusts- and
indeed, there is a, general lack of correct infor
nation about them. So we think it well TO de-
fvote a little space to a notice of these curious
Iinseets. }. .. :. $50 a. - - .'-'. -
f. The "locusts' are not loc,usts t Il at all. The
formidable insect that devours the heritage in
Eastern lands; and its destructive cousin of our
own Western plains, is large, strong;jointed-
winged grasshopper, no more like our tsCicada
Septendecem' than butterfly. Our 'oeusts"
eat nothing while the true locusts eat every
green thing The Seventeen Year insects be-
long to the order of Hem5pte,a, or insects with
a horny beak for suction, four wings; larva and
pupa nearly like the adult insect but wanting
wings. Locusts. proper, belong to the O,thoptcra
insects with jaws, and very destructive too
including coekroaches, crickets, grasshoppers,
loeusts. The Seventeen Year insect is Chased
among the Harrest Flies, of which there are three
groups or tribes Gtcodians; plant lice or Aphi-
dido; and bark lice or Coecidd Cicadidas have
short antenne. wing and wing-coyers three
joints to their feet; thick skins; and the female
has piercer, or egg-depositor lodged in furrow
beneath herbody. The Seventeen Year Cicadas
are easily distinguished by their broad heads
large and very convex eyes, three eye-les on the
crown, the transparent and veined wngcovers
and wings; and by the elevation on the back
part of the thorax in the form of the letter X
(Haris) Some read " Oh the wings, and in
terpret it to mean mar; and it is fact that wars
have always come, sooner or later after locusts !;
as wars have come after grasshoppers and flies
and foolish prophecies Of uninspred foretellers of
events. The female bcust if we must call her
so, is provided with a complicated mechanism
for pertorating twies of trees and depositing her
eggs III them This is the one purpose for which
she comes above ground and after that has been
accomplished, she dies. The male, in the mean
time, amuses her by keeping up an excessively
loud noise, peculiar to himself. He does not
sing, however. He has not the least music in
his throat. He only plays drum OR tambourine;
but it is such an one as no instrument maker
but God, can Iiiake, and no musician play on but
the locust himself. There are two of these
drums, one on feach side behind the wings.
These are formed OF convex pieces of parchment
gathered into numerous fine plaits.' They are
not played upon with sticks after the awkward
fashion Of human imitators, but by muscles or
cords fastened to theinside of the drum Nv hen
these muscles contract and relax, which they do
with great rapidity, the drumheads are altern-
ately tightened and loosened, recovering their
natural conye2ity by their own elasticity. The
sound is increased by a.reverating apparatus fixed
beneath. The female piercer Is a remarkable IN
strument. 1t consists of three parts in close con-
tact with each other. The two outer are grooved
on the inside and enlarged on the tips which
externally are armed with small teeth like a saw,
between the other two So 'this instrument has
the power and does the work of an awl and of a
double edged saw-rather of two keyhole saws
cutting opposite to each other" The duration
of life in winged insects is usually very short
seldom more than two or three weeks; sometimes
only few hours 1t is the elimination and
brief final stage Of their existence when they
transfer their life to coming generation-sing
out as it were their Thanksgiving to-the Creator
for the life they have enjoyed in their former
state-and gracefully leave their places for the
new family they have provided. But the Seven
teen Year locusts have that unusual duration as
signed to them. They do not spend one-half of
it in bnrrowing dewnwards towards the antipodes,
and the other in getting back again the surface.
Not at all, They spend their time among the
roots Of the grasses and trees, near where they
were hatched seeking their subsistence from |
them after the manner proper to bugs, to whose
family they belong. The females select twigs of
trees, which they clasp with their legs, and,
bending down the percer to an angle of forty y-fye
degrees, they repeatedly thrust it obliquey into
the wood and with their saws, detach little
spliuters SO as to form kind of cover or lid to
the perforation. Having made fssure long
enough for some twenty eggs they are deposited
in pairs, side by side, yet separated by woody
fibre. She goes % with this operation, from
twig to twig. until she has deposited several
hundred eggs and then dies from exhaustion. |
The twigs thus perforated die, and broken /
off by winds, and thus may convey the eggs to
the ground if the young locusts do not get there
before. In six or seven weeks, or, as some say,
in two weeks the young insects burst their shell |
and begin the quiet life of subterranean locust |
If hatched before the twigs are detached, which |
is very often the case, the little insects deliber
ately crawl out to the end of the limb and let go
one of the most extraordinary wonders
Of instinct noticed in the creatures of God. BY
what sense or physical Impulse these little ami
mails take such voluntary falls, is inconeeiyable,
What would we think, if babies of ours, born on
he top of a mountain, should swing off into the
deep valies, and 90 quietly to eating fruits, after
heir fearful precipitation? The little locusts
10 as much and think nothingof it. Truly, God
IS great in insects as in men. On reaching the
ground the loc1lsts burrow into the soil With
heir broad and strong fore feet and attach them
selves closely to the roots of plants, especially the
most tender and sdcculent, from which they
suck their only nourishment The only change
hey undergo, is growth in size and the develop
lIeut of wings. As the time of transformation
approaches. the locust begins TO come up through
cylindrical passages, carefully made and. accord
ns to DR. Potter. vanished and water-tieht