Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-05-27

APPEARING IN LARGE NUMBERS IN CHESTER
CoUSrY-THEIR HABITS.
From the Philadelphia Times
The first of what are known as the seventeen
year locusts were seen yesterday on trees near
the city. They have been seen in large num-
bers for several days In different parts of Ches-
ter county. Many of them still wore what are
termed their Jackets BY careful provision
OF nature the seventeen-year visitor when he
crawts up To the surface through his carefully
packed and cemented hole and comes out has
a dark jacket which envelopes him and which
he ingeniously throws off after u few warm
days.
The jacket is great encumbrance and lie il
not fuIl-fledged seventeen-year locust ready
for business until he gets outside of it, Ii seems
that the creatures in their Larvae state. are
particularly susceptible to cold and moisture
Accordingly, through their sevente,lI-vcar
sleep, they keep very far under ground, and
as they begin to work their way ul, and out OF
their dark subterranean retreats moisten theih
chambers with something that appears 10
make it waterproof. Their final appearance
is often postponed on account of the weather
But in ploughing and otherwise many of them
have been prematurely turned up. and after
getting some suStenance by hanging ON TO
roots as is their wont they have determined Ia
go higher and have gone up trees. In "a few
cases the sun has dried them enough 80 that
they have been able 10 split their Jackets i'm the
back, which they do by gradually tearing a
rent with their hind legs. After this iS done
niue more sun for the drying process enables
the insect To unfold his wings and fly about.
The last visitation in this section. as that
is the word commonly used, was, according to
a number OF authorities, in 1Stjs, and il was
Prof. Z. '. Riley, the entomoiogist of the Agri-
cultural department at Washington, who first
announced that they would surely appear in
different parts o! the country this year. Nearly
an the papers OF large belt extending north
easterly through the state announce their
coming. They have been dug up in nests at
Ashland, found in graves at West Chester
taken out OF cisterns al Reading, turned up in
piow burrows at oxford, found stuck iii posi-
holes at Wilkesbarre. found ia a biackbird shot
at Lebanon, and even taken from the craws OF
A L.4 eli
But the ''Cicada Septcmdecim," which Is the
name that Linn;eus gave IL, lis not locust AT ALL
but OF the same family as the common harvest
fly, which is its second cousin. The mystery
that has always attended the creature and IFS
strange pecuiarities have led To many popular
errors. OF all the trees in the forest Mr.. Cicada
Septemdecim likes the oak the best and il is "A
little strange that the monarch OF the wood
should be 50 assalable by a mere nasty little
grub. Still he. Or rather she-for il is Mrs Cica-
das that does the business-resorts occasionally
to other forest trees and is frequently TO ne
found even on shrubs. Indeed there seem TO
be no trees or shrubs that are exempt from their
attacks, except those of the pine and liz tribe.
which they let severely alone. 1t is Mr.. Cicada
VINO makes the noise and Mrs. Cicada who
makes the havoc. The gentleman of the family
is a drummer by profession and the lady
strange to say, is boss carpenter: While the
male cicada keeps up a tattoo on his drum tile
female who is said to relish this music amaz-
ingly, saws out a neat little egg basket. A gem
WHO'S SO old that he has seen four successive
crops OF these strange insects, which most of the
present generation never saw in their lives
says that close 10 the side of the body of the
male seventeen-yeafod locust there is "a little
opening like a pocket, in which is situated
q little drum, which is played upon
and beaten by valves. In the hinder
part of the body of the other insect is
a wonderful implement called a piercer
which has the combined power OF an awI and a
doubleedged saw. The end is spear shaped and
the sides have sharp little teeth. They bore
their hole Obiiquely in the pith OF a tree at an
angle of fOrty-fve degrees, and deposit their
eggs in pairs, separated by a little wooden par
tition. 1t takes about fifteen minutes to pre-
pare one of these nests and I'LL il with eggs but
II Is not unusual for one insect to make orty or
nifty assures in the same limb. She goes thus
from limb to limb and from tree 10 tree until
her store of from four to five thousand eggs is
exhausted. Then she lies down and dies. Ac-
cording to most authorities in fifty-two days,
though some say forty-two, the young insect is
Matched out and is yeilow-white grub, which.
with an infalible instinct, like that which takes
the duck to the water, drops to the earth and
burrows no matter from what height. "This
insect" said Prof. Joseph Ledy, the eminent
scientist, yesterday, sis not locust The locust
of the Bible is our common grasshopper. This
grub appears in different parts of the country
every year, but it takes seventeen years to de-
velOp In any one place. Some years il covers
q larger territory than Others. 1t does not eat
the leaves. In fact, i'm its perfect state it eats
nothing. Its only mission is reproduction.
Before it comes up it sucks the roots of trees. 1t
Injuries trees by the female boring them to de-
posit her eggs. All the bored limbs and
branches soon drop off"