Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1885-06-04
SEVENTEEN LOCUSTS
INTERESTING NaTEs or THEIR
LIFE AND HIBITS.


Il hphuohOsASt WIN lhau oDSEENtN
Them ns Far Rack as ISI7-An Un-
| favorable SensOn for Them.
james II. Morgan, druggist, of Tenth
aud Poplarstreets, broughtto the GAZETTE
office on Saturday morning u first fully
| developed 17-yenr locust, the finding of
which in this city has been reported. 1t
was bright looking little creature, bear
ing his w trademark on each wing, carry
ing sucking tube and protesting against
being handled in subdued buzz that
really sounded no more like "Pharoah"
than "keno."
The voice of the 17-year locust may
now be heard in the Brandywino woods
and many of the insects were gathered
by the loiterers there Sunday. One
industrious man was seen along Squirrel
Run with collar box half filled with
these cicadas.
The entomologist of the Baltimore Sun
supplements what he had said before with
a highly interesting article on the history
and habits of these locusts. He says:
''The late DR.. Gideon B. Smith of this
city, kept I'm accurate account of the time
of their return, habits and general con-
duct. In 1917 the loeusts appeared on
May 23d, in 1884 about the same time,
and in 1851 on May Goth. The date of
appearance varied little in 1868 and in
1885. Many of the locusts have died in
the ground this spring on account of un-
favorable circumstances, and their appear
ance has been somewhat delayed by the
backward spring. The locusts first come
in the pupa or soft state, but in short
time become fully fiedged. About the
end of May they begin to lay their eggs,
which are deposited in the tender twigs
of trees. AS soon as the young attain
their growth in the grub state they fall to
the ground, and make their way two or
three feet underneath the surface, in order
to undergo their change into the pupa
form, after which last transformation
they are found in great numbers
over large districts of country. Il is
claimed that experiments have demon
strated they never descend further than
six feet into the earth, and that the eggs
must come into contact with the earth
before they will advance towards life. II
will be II years before the young of the
locusts which now begin to sing will re-
appear from their hiding places in the
earth. In 1868 thousands of the pro-
genitors of the present visitors came up
between the bricks of the payements in
the city which had been laid in the pre-
Vlous IL years on new streets. Generally
the locusts prefer the woods and shady
places and not the open fields. Notwith-
standing the common idea that they are
injurious to vegetation it appears from
high authority that they are not SO, ex-
cept from the damage done by the female
in depositing her eggs. Locusts are
iavorlte food of hogs, squirrels and some
OF the larger birds, and are a favorite
dish with the Indians when fried.
"These remarks apply particularly to
the 17-year locusts, there being many
other species i'll the United States, though |
this is the most remarkable. Several |
entomologists have included locusts and |
American grasshoppers under the generic |
name 'locusts' The grasshoppers have |
sometimes proved very destructive in |
their visitations to some parts of the |
country, both east and west, and in New
England Mt one time they not only ate up |
all the grass in the fields, but actually |
attacked clothing and fences. II is be- |
lieyed by some, however, that most of the |
devastation attributed to grasshoppers |
really belongs to locusts, and most often |
to the red-legged species, which have |
proved specially destructive to the grass |
of salt meadows, clover, corn and |
vegetables. Thoy were so abundant |
in northern New England towards |
the middle of the eighteenth cen |
tury that days of fasting and prayer were
on account of the calamity. |
Various methods have boeh resorted to in |
order to check the ravages of locusts,
such as collecting their eggs, which may
easily be turned out of the ground, and |
taking the grown locusts by means of |
cloths and nets spread over the fields. |
Happily for this country we do not have /
that fearful scourge, the migratory locusts,
which abound in Syria, Egypt, and almost |
all the south of Asia and southern Europe, |
whence they have sometimes spread even |
to England and northern Europe, darken-
ing the air by their masses and destroying
every trace OF vegetation.
"The 17-year locusts, however, which |
are now showing themselves, are COM 1
paratively harmless, and do not injure
the crops of the husbandman. though
they fill the woods. At present they are
IN great numbers in some parts of Balti- |
more county, and in some wheat fields
are on almost every stalk in pupa state, |
and also among the clover.
DIR. Smith after thorough investigation,
that by the net of depositing its
eggs the locust does all the injury of
which it is capable. The excavations /
thus made injure the young trees of the
the gooseberry, currant and
other small garden shrubs, but the apple,
pear, peach, plum and cherry trees only
suffer partially, and even this is not
believed to affect the fruit of the sue
eeeding year. The locust, according to
DIR. Smith, does not depend for food upon
any living trees above ground, but lives
on the nutritious principles it collects
from the surface of vegetable sub
stances and extracts from the earth.
As their resurrection is said to be on the
same spots where they formerly appeared
it may be that the wheat and other fields
in the country where they are now found
were formerly the site of forest or
whence they were dropped to
the earth. DIR. Smith was very pro-
in his statements that the locust
was not poisonous, statements of death
by their stings to the contrary notwith-
"The extensive researches of DIR. Smith
show that this locust in depositing its eggs
does all the harm of which ii is capable. |
1t has no other mouth or means of taking
food than three small hairs in its snont, |
which, i'll feeding, are spread out over the
surface of the roots or leaves of trees,
and these collect the vegetable juice and
carry it by capillary attraction to the |
stomach. Even the injury done in de-
posting their eggs on shrubbery of value
can be guarded against by covering it |
from June LIST TO o(lth with chnnn UoIIze
DIR. Smith ascertained that the 17-yenr |
locusts had been noticed in Maryland, |
Pennsylvania and Delaware in 1866, 1888, |
1900, 1917, 1884, the date of his work, and |
afterwards in 1851 and 1868, thus cstab- |
lishing their regular appearance in this |
district every II years. They do not ap-
pear the same year in every districts, but |
each district has different year for their |
appearance from that of any neighboring |
district. DIR. Smith says the locust is |
emphntically nm American republican in |
sect, and found only in the United States, |
and that there are two tribes of these in |
sects, differing from each other only in
the periods of their lives. The larger |
family, the northern, living II years, and |
the other, the southern, 13 years.
"Generally these insects begin to leave
the ground about May Goth, and increase
in numbers till about May 9th, when the
greatest numbers will appear, and then in
less numbers till about June 9Th, when
no more will leave the earth. About
June 18th they commence depositing
their eggs, which continues until about
June Goth. The female lays about 400
eggs, excavating holes for that purpose
in the limbs or twigs to which they are