Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1885-06-26
More About the Locn.ss.


Professor Riley, the entomologist Of
the Department of Agriculture, has
just published his promised pamphlet
OH the periodical cicada, or the "seven-
teen.year locust" as it is often errone-
ously called, and the thirteen-year race
of cicada. The professor says they are
not locusts. The first appearances of
the seventeen-year brood. he says, was
recorded as long ago as 1888. That
brood and the thirteen-year brood some
times occur in the same States, yet, in
general terms, the seventeen-year
broods may be said to belong to the
Northern and the thirteen-year broods
to the Southern States, the dividing
line being about latitude IS degrees,
though in some places the seventeen
year broods extend below that line,
while in Illinois the thirteen-year
brood runs up, considerably beyond it.
Professor Riley states that he published
his discovery of the thirteen-year brood
in 1858, and, four months later, he was
gratified to find that Dr.. Gideon b.
Smith, of Baltimore, had made the
same discovery, though he had never
given it to the world. 1t so happened
that one of the largest seventeen-year
broods, appeared simultaneously in the
summer of 1868. Such All event, how
ever, so far as regards these two par
ticular broods, had not taken place
since the year l647, nor will 1t take
place again till the year 2OS9. There
are absolutely 10 perceptible specihc
differences between the two broods
other than in time of maturing; but
while the insects forming these two
classes of broods are not specifically
distinct, they are good and distinct
races, which do not cross. The larV9
of the cicada are often found at great
depth. One case is reported where
they had been found at the depth O.
ten feet. The operation of emerging
from the pupa generally takes place be-
tween 6 and 9 p. m, and it takes only
ten minutes for the cisada to free itself,
Eggs are deposited more generally III
oaks and hickories, though they are
found in all deciduous trees. The eggs
hatch about six weeks after they are
deposited. In regard to the injury
which cicadas cause, the Professor cites
q report where they are said to have
killed pear trees, but he also quotes
from the late DIR. Smith, of Baltimore,
40 follows:
"The larva obtains its food from the
small vegetable radicles that every
where pervade the fertile earth. IL
takes its food from the surface OF these
roots, consisting of the moist exuda-
ton dixie animal perspiratiom, Tor
which purpose its rostrum or snout Is
provided with three exceedingly dell
cate capillaries, or hairs, which project
from the UP VI tHC ohouS "'' 'Nf
over the surface, gathering up the mi
mute crops of moisture. This is its only
food"
Professor Riley adds that the truth
of the matter seems TO be that, while
they do puncture aud receive nourlsh-
ment from the roots of trees, they
rarely, if ever, produce in this way any
serious injury, although when in per-
feet state, however, the female is capa-
Bile of doing great injury to trees by
hacking up their twigs in the process OF
ovipositing. He traces the chronology
of the different broods from their first
recorded appearance to the present, and
by computation shows that, during
the next seventeen years, every year
except 1887, 1890 and 1892, will be some
where cicada year.