The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-02-10
A GOOD YEAR FOR LOCUsTs.

more than probable that the woods in
Maryland, Virginia and the District of
Columbia will resound with their rat
tling song. This will be unwelcome
news to the farmers and florists, who
know, from sad experience, the de-
structive character of these insects. It
viii be remem bered that in the summer
OF 1865 the locusts were particularly
abundant in this locality. There was
| Hardly n, loot OF ground in the woods
| and fields which was not Completely
| perforated W th the holes out OF which
the insects had come, They were
everywhere and ate up everything.
causing an amount of damage which is
still frtsn in the minds of agricuturists
Ehey Will not appear this season in such
great quantities, but in the year 1885
this vicinity will be again afflicted nv
an abundant visitation.
There are two broods of the locust -
said Professor Riley, of the Agricultural
department, to the Post reporter. who
called upon him for information; Il" one
appears every thirteen years, and the
other every seventeen years. By n CO.
incidence both broods are to appear to-
gether this year, but not In the same
places"
" In what localitiesP"
| The seventeen. year locusts will be
particularly plentiful in Marquette and
Green Lake counties in Wisconsin, and
may also appear in the western part of
North Carolina, in Northeast Ohio, and
q lew in Lancaster county, Pa. and
Westchester county, New York, They
will also be abundant in the neighbor.
hood of Wheeling, and will probably
extend down into Maryland, Virginia
and the District of Columbia OF this,
however, l am not quite sure The
thlrteen-year brood will, in all proba-
bility, appear In Southern Illinois.
throughout Missouri, with the exception
tt Arkansas, Indian Territory, Ken
tucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia and North and South Carolina" !"
What is the difference bet ween the
two broodsF"
y" DO you mean in appearancep Very
little, and one is very apt TO confound
them"
. Are the locusts to be depended upon
as recurring in regular periods3"
Yes, sir. Observations extending
Tor more than 200 years prove that they
never Tall. Eha earliest appearance of
the periodical cicada, or locust, so far
as we nave any record, occurred at
plymouth, Mass, in the year 1884. Each
y appeared
again without fail. The raturalist cal
culates as confidently on the future an
pearance OF the locust in a given month
IN given year, for ali ii ne to come, as
the astronomer does an eclipse or a
transit on some particular day; and he
may go back in time when none but
savage men dWelt on this con ntinent, and
IeeI confident that the woods of New
Jersey ratified with the hoarse CRY of this
insect IN the month of June, seven years
after the birth OF Christ, lust as they
did in June 1877"
where does the locust reside, so to
speak, during his absence from the face
OF the earth P"
" He is then under the earth, in the
shape Of worm, living On the sap of
young rootlets. In following these they
penetrate very deep into the ground,
sometimes going as far down as ten or
twelve feet. The season for their ap.
pearance and disappearance differs
somewhat with the latitude, though not
SO materially as one might suppose.
They appear II little earlier in the South
than III the North, but the last half OF
NaV can be set down as the period dur.
ing which they emerge from the ground,
in many parts OF the country, which
they generally leave by the fourth of
July. AS is the case with great many
other insects, the males make their ap-
pearance several days before the female,
ana also disappear sooner. Hence, in
the latter part Of the cicada season,
though the woods are still full of fe.
males, the song Of but very few males
will be heard"
" Do not the females singp"
mo, the musical organs are POS
sessed only by the males, This fact was
embodied in an ancient rhyme,
Happy the cicada lives,
tor they all have voiceless wives"
How is the music producedP"
Ihe rafting noise is produced by a
system OF muscles in the lower part OF
the body, which work on the drums
under the wings by alternately tighten
ing and loosening them. The general
noise on approaching infested woods is
a compromise between that of a distant
threshing machine and distant
frog pond. That which they make
when disturbed mimics nest of Young
snakes or young birds under similar
circumstanceS-a sort Of scream. They
can also produce chirp somewhat like
that OF q cricket, and very loud shrill
screecn, prolonged for fifteen or twenty
seconds and gradually increasing in
force and then decreasing"
" Is it true thai the locust stingsP"
There is II widespread fear of the
locust sting" answered the professor
every time there is an abundance OF
!ocusts you hear of people being stung,
and newspaper accounts Of such acci-
dents are by no means iufrequent. I
have known people who denied them
selves the pleasure of eating black ber-
ries aud other fruits. because they feared
these fruits bad been poisoned by the
eggs Of cicadas; while others believe
that they poison water, So tar as can
Ind, all these reports are false or greatly
exaggerated, 9nd the great maiority Of
them are pure imagination.
q" Are they not capable ofdoing an i'm
mense amount of damageP"
Yes, sir. They have DESTROYED whole
apple orchards and vine, ards. The
worst of it is that there is no way to
get rid OF them when they make their
appearance in large mum bers and have
attained full size and powers of flight.
The only possible method is to allow
poultry and hogs to devour them lust
after they come up out of the ground
and are in a helpless condition"
There Is a good deal of supersti-
tlon," remarked the reporter, "about
the w on their wings"
81 have noticed that" Professor Rilev
answered, "some ignorant persons are
silly enough t. believe that it portends
war. 1t occurs alike, though not to
such marked degree, on all other
cicadas, and il people must have an
omen let them take the two Wis for