The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-04
THE COMING OF THE CICADE.
A Great Musical Concert Which Is Heard
Only Once in Seventeen Years.
The Arrival Of the Iocusts-A Full and Accu-
rate Description of Insects Which Live
for Love and Eating.
louisville courier-Journal.

is heard only once in seventeen years The air
was filled with humming something like what
would be made by two or three hundred large
swarms of bees, except that the pitch is little
lower, and the occasional obligatos or solos are
those of bass instrum snts. On looking into the
trees the musicians are easily discernable They
are the seventy year locusts,' thousands OF
which are seen on single limb of the trees,
while others circle clumsily about in the air.
Under foot and on the trunk of every tree on
nearly every leaf and blade of grass are the dis
carded overcoats of these small musicians
whose song is always an address to their
LADY gloves; fo- they are rare lovers
these clumsy fellows The tender
passion is the sole object of their existence Love
gives them wings and they faunt themselves in
the sun for brief space, like some gay Lo
thario, and like him they dissipate every energy,
and then fall to the earth, like an empty
pouch, as Balzac says, and die. When exam
ined after DEATH they are found to be a mere
SHE'LL scarcely more substantial than that they
cast off when they began their amatorv career.
It is true that the female, before her death,
goes to trouble to drill holes in the bark of
the trees for the purpose of laying her eggs, af
ter which she too falls and dies, leaving as
empty carcass as that Of her mate. For sew
enteen years have these hopeful creatures been
waiting iu the dark recesses of the earth for the
time when fate will throw them together, and
for seventeen years have they been layin in a
good supply of food, so that when their honey
moon shall arrive they may waste no time in
Idle. vulga feeding. but may devote themselves
entirely to the cultivation of each others ac-
quaintance; and so, through affection, they
starve to death.
There seems to be no reason for calling these
insects locusts, any more than there would be
for calling bat bird. They belong to the
family of cicad4, commonly called harvest
flies. In particular, this species Is called the
cicada septendecim, or seventeen-year cicada.
They have broad, short bodies, broad heads,
large red eyes on each side of the head, and
three eyelets on the crown. Their wings ard
wing covers are transparent and veined their
bodies are brown, their legs reddish brown and
rather inadequate for their bodies, with no
power of springing like grasshoppers. The male
is the musician; lie has pair of kettle drums,
one on each side of the body behind the hard
thorax and just back of the wings In the
cavity outside Of the drum cords fastened to
the inside of the plated parchment. By con-
tracing and relaxing these muscles, the drum
heads are made to emit the sound The intensity
of the sound is increased by the cavities within
the body.
The insect has been known in this country
intervals since then, though it does not appear at
all places in the same year. In each locality
where it has appeared, however, it recurs at
intervals of about seventeen years. The coming
of these insects thus regularly and in such
swaTms was probably the cause of their being
called locusts, suggesting as they do by these
means the migratory locusts of the Eastern world,
the flights Of which have been so destructive to
vegetation and often so pestilential in their
effects. The seventeen-year cicada produces no
EfErh rQSrttQ. IN aat al at
his presence probably grows out of his name
wineh causes him to be mentally associated with
Egyptian plaques, and African and Asiatic
famineS The cicada takes his food under
Eqo0nd and when visible is not even thinking of
eating The only damage done by this variety,
after it reaches its perfect state, is the damage
done by the female in laying her eggs. This is
an interesting process.
The female has a conical body under which
she has longitudinal channel for the reception
of an instrument with which she pierces the
limbs of trees. This piercer consists Of three
parts the inner one fitting into grooves of the
outer two. The outer parts are provided with
sawlike teeth; the central part is spear pointed
and is used as a boring instrument The female
selects a small twig, clasps it on both sides with
her legs and then sets her saws and auger to
work, thrusting them obliquely into the bark and
wood in the direction of the fiber The action
of the saws leaves fbrous cover for the eggs
The eggs are conveyed into the nest through the
piercer and are deposited in pairs. the woody
fiber serving to keep them separate, The nests
contain fifteen or twenty eggs each. Then the
insect moves on and makes another nest, and
continues to do so until she has stocked the
limb, whom she goes to another. She lays four
or FIVE hundred eggs taking about fifteen min
utes to a nest After while she gets tired,
tries to fly, fails to the ground and dies. The
little limb has probably been killed by the
cutting it has received and good wind will
throw it to the ground where the young
hatch out in month or so. Ii tie limb does
c011 @AA he xrls
though only about as big as an ant are led by
instinct to throw themselves off the limb to the
ground, trusting to blind luck to bring up safely
somewhere. and often getting wrecked by their
unreasoning confidence When they touch the
earth they at once bury themselves and begin to
hunt around for the root of some nice, pride of
the orchard peach or pear tree. Finding this,
they stick long sucker into the root and begin
their seventeen-year lunch. Their only meat
and drink is the juice Of some succulent plant
Sometimes their brothers and sisters get around
IN such numbers that they year by year kill the
tree. The little creatures do not go very deeply
into the earth. The grow larger in the course of
time, and gradually develop the various mem
bers which they have had in embryo from the
time of their Matching. When their hunger is
satisfed-that is to say, after about seventeen
years of continuous feeding-they begin to think
OF getting up into the air, for which purpose
they make clrcuitous passages toward the earth's
surface. The burrow fills up with earth as the
insect ascends, but it keeps the upper six or
eight inches clear. In fine weather he comes to
the top of the hole and peeps out at the sun and
takes the air. He keeps this up for several days,
until he becomes familiar with the immediate
surroundings. Then he goes on wider voyage
of discovery. selecting the night for his ad
venture His ambition is to keep on getting
higher, and if he starts up blade of grass he
viii 60 to the top of it and stay there. Often he
gets up on the trunk of trees and more fire.
lu3ntly into the limbs. When he gets tired he
stops to rest and then becomes conscious that he
is nobler bird than he knew anything about
He finds that he has higher nature, which he
cannot develop till he has gotten rid of his en-
numbering case. He begins to wiggle and pres
emily the skin cracks over his head and the for
ward part of his back. Then he squirms, and
pulls, and pushes, and draws himself painfully
and slowly through the split in his skim Finally
he gets out and leaves the old hulk still clnging
to whatever he had attached himself to before