Middletown transcript., 1868-03-21
The Seventeen Year Locusts.

above ground this spring. Their first ap-
pearance here was chronicled in 1749, and
they returned regularly in 1865, 1888,
1900, 1917, 1884, and 1861. We have
no doubt that they will again keep their
appointed time, and that in few months
their cry will indicate that generation is
ready to die, and another to begin its sew
enteen years of subterranean life.
These "locusts" are not locusts at all.
The formidable insect that devours the
herbage in Eastern lands, and its destruc-
tive cousin of our own Western plains, is
large, strong g-jointed, winged grasshop-
per, no more like our Cicada Septendecem
than butterfly. Our locusts eat moth,
ing, while the true locusts eat every green
thing.
The Seventeen Year. Cicadas are easily
distinguished by their broad heads, large
and very convex eyes, three eyelets on the
crown, the transparent and veined wing
covers and wings; and by the elevation on
the back part of the thorax in the form of
the letter X. Some read w on the wings
and interpret it to mean Var; and it is a
fact that wars have always come, sooner
after grasshoppers and flies and foolish
prophecies of uninspircd foretellers of
events. The female locust, if we must
call her so, is provided with complicated
mechanism for pcrforatng twigs of trees
and depositing her eggs in them. This
is the one purpose for which she comes
above ground and after that has been
accomplished she dies. The male, in the
meantime, amuses her by keeping up an
excessively loud noise, peculiar to himself
He does not sing, however; he only plays
drum or tambourine; but it is such an
one as no instrument-makcr but God, can
make, and no musician play on, but the
locust himself. There are two of these
drums, one on each 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 hu-
man imitators, but by muscles or cords
fastened to the inside of the drum. When
these muscles cantract and relax-which
they do with great rapidity, the drum
heads are alternately frightened and loos-
encd, recovering their natural convexity
by their own elasticity. The sound is in
creased by reverbcrating apparatus fixed
beneath. The female picrcer is a remark
able instrument 1t consists of three parts
in close contact with each other. The
two outer are grooved on the inside and
enlarged on the tips, which externally are
armed with small teeth like saw, and a
central spear-pointed borer, which plays
between the other two This instrument
has the power and does the work of an awl
and of "a double-edgcd saw-rather of two
keyhole saws cutting opposite each other.
The Seventeen Years Locusts spend their
time among the roots of the grasses and
trees, near where they were hatched, seek
manner of bugs, to whose family they be-
long. The females select twigs of trees,
which they clasp with their legs, and,
bending down the picrcer to an angle of
forty-fve degrees, they repeatedly thrust
it obliquely into the wood, and with their
saws detached little splintcrs SO as to form
q kind of cover or lid to the perforation.
Having made fissure long enough for
some twenty eggs, they are deposited in
pairs, side by side, yet separated by woody
fibre. She goes ON with this operation,
from twig to twig, until she has deposited
several hundred eggs, and then dies from
exhaustion. Thc twigs thus perforated,
die, and are broken off by winds, and thus
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 deliberately crawl out to
the end of the limb and let go; exhibiting
one Of the most extraordinary wonders Of
instinct noticed in the creatures of God.
On reaching the ground the locusts bur-
row into the soil with their broad and
| strong fore feet, and attach themselves
closely to the roots of plants, especially
the most tender and succulent, from which
they suck their only nourishment. The
only change they undergo, is the growth
in size and the development of wings. As
the time of transformation approaches, the
locust begins to come up the cylindrical
passages, carefully made, and, according
to DIR. Potter, vanished and water-tight.
Finally filing up behind it as it advances,
| it has hole of five or six inches in which
it lives for several days, waiting, if the
weather be not suitable-peeping out and
accommodating, and getting accustomed to
air and light. When ready it comes out
in the night, takes hold Of some firm sup
port with its claws, and sets to work to get
| its skin off. At length IL splits its hack
and crawls out, leaving the old shell stick
ing ias, na after dlysng itself tSorouga- % s
Immense numbers are eaten by birds and
domestic fowls, and hogs and ants but
locusts themselves are not known to eat
anything after their exodus to the upper
world.
The return of these remarkable insects
is fraught with suggestions Of the deepest
/ intQraek and imnortanao o How fhay fall