Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-30
THE LOCUST.
4 Scientific AnalYsist of the New and
1Esthetlc Article of Diet.

4 Scientific AnalYsist of the New and
1Esthetlc Article of Diet.
FroD the Ye,o orb World
The cicada, commonly miscalled the
'sventeen-year locust" is again on hand
aud VIII at once proceed 10 draw forth the
exhaustive aud exhausting essay of the
sciehtjst aad terrify the brave and intelli-
gent city gtri while she visits her country
cousins. III this country the locust proper
Is geRBtdly known by the less euphonious
hanfe of gFasshopper with which degener-
ate giutt9n the cicada has but little in
common. Both are vegetarians ana that
Is about the only point of resemblance.
The alimehtary canal of the grassh Upper
is abnOrmally developed and he has giz-
zard enough for an ostrich. His capacity
for eating nearly everything in the vegeta-
BILE kingdom IS only exceeded by his appe-
tite and his industry. About the ouly
thing which discOurages a grasshOpper is
hard frost or cactus.
The cicada, on the other hand, is more
exquisite and much less destructive. lie
does not munich and grind everything up
as the grasshonper does. Nature has pro-
vlded the cicada with an apparatus for
the skin of plants, aud for extracting
the sap Of the one and the juice Of the
other.
A great deal Of poetic moonshIne was
woven about the cicada by the ancients.
They went into harmless state of lunacy
over the shrill noise which IL makes, ana
dignihed the same by calling it "the sing
ing Of the cicada." They wasted vast
amount OF time in trying to invent terms
In Of 81 a
more devoted TO this screechIng sap-sucker
than most men are to their wives.
just how this singing" is done is "a
point upon which nAturalists are not en-
tirely agreed. Under the anterior part of
the abdomen and on each side of the same
region is a continuance which some bug
Ol0gists call the organ OF sound. Others
maintain that the cicada rubs its hind legs
against the veins inside OF the wing COW
ers, after tho manner OF the grasshupper:
the veins Of the wing covers prOtrude con-
siderably and the edges OF the hind legs
are rugged and uneven like the teeth of a
buZz-saw. Rasping the two together pro-
duees "A peculiar metallic sound which
seems to be augmented by means Of the
abdominal arrangement already men,
toned. One writer says that the process
Is like the playing Of a violin and that the
walls Of the abdomen serve as a sounding
board.
When they move in great clouds. as
they do ia tropical countries, the whi2-
2ng and whirring Of their wings is as
deaieniDg as the voice of full-grown
Dakota blizzard, which it greatly resem-
blps.
Gordon Cumming found the cicada bet
ter eating than some other kinds of food
which be encountered in Africa. and now
that Prof Riley, of Washington, pro.
nounc0s them so tOothsome the future OF
this beautiful Insect 10 somewhat inse-
cure. The Ions interval between its visits,
however, lessons the danger OF It's com
pletely routing the oyster, and then, too,
before IL comes around again IL may be
demonstrated that the plump and Juicy
cOckrOach and pOtato-bug are even more
palatable and delicious than the clcada.
KNOW suHSELF, by renaing the 'ssci.
enco of Life" the best medical work ever
published, for young and middle-agod men.