Wichita eagle., 1889-09-04
--xsSMLI1aM
9ai1Y Ea91e
FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS.
lOcUSTS BURROW THAT LONG, BUT
HAVE ONE LONG GAY SEASON.

HAVE ONE LONG GAY SEASON.
Facts About the Brilliant Career of This
Unn,itigated Nuisance-The Females
Widowed EARLY, Don't Pine Away,
but Get Right Down to business.
The. seventeen year locusts pass seven
teen years under ground, and then, as If
by preconcerted arrangement, make
their appearance out Of little holes al
most simultaneously, and in numbers
that run far up into the millions. This
is always done after sunset, and by
o'clock the same night the hordes have
appeared They are not very active
when they first appear out of their sub
terranean homes, but they make what
speed they can toward the nearest trees,
and climb them to the lower leaves,
where they fairly swarm, sometimes as
many as thirteen pupae cinging to one
oak leaf. Those which are be!ated either
oging 70 the bark of the tree or-if too
Iaye to get that far-fasten their claws TO
ths first convenient object, and wait for
the. grand transformation which is to
convert them from ugly crawling things
of silence and gloom into gorgeous things
of the sir and the sunlight, the males
endowed with musical powers, and both
sexes clad in gay suits of orange and
black, with gossamer wings Of iridescent
hues. But q few minutes elapse after
the pupae have secured a resting place
before the dull skins begin to crack along
the back.
COMING WITH DRUMS.
Then the imprisoned cicada works his
way to freedom, at the first soft, white
thing, but quickly developing wings and
becoming hard and active. For the most
nart it does not require more than twen-
tv minutes for the soft prisoner to be-
come perfect cicada, though sometimes
an hour or more is consumed in the pro-
cess, and several hours are required TO
produce the final color. The males are
the first by several days to appear, and
they herald the first dawn Of their new
existence by trying their drums; fol
their musical apparatus is IN effect drum
like. at first their music Is rather feeble,
but in little while it secures the proper
tone and force, and then it scarcely
knows any rest. nor do they drum at
haphazard, but rather in unison, and 50
it is that the noise of the swarnlS can be
heard fully a mile away, and is positive
" deafening when close at hand.
The male cicada eats very little willie
waiting for the female to appear, and
that little is in the form Of sap from the
trees, the bark of which is slightly
punctured for the juice to exude. The
coming OF the females is hailed by the
waiting lords with an increased noise,
and for few days the air is thick with
the flying insects, SO much SO that the
sun is obscured for small areas. In few
days after this the males die gradually,
and the females busy themselves with
the task of egg laying. Each female
will lay in the neighborhood Of 500 eggs,
and the manner in which she lays them
is really remarkable She selects young
tryigs only and. with singular appa-
ratus, called an OvipCsitOr, bores holes in
regular order along the under side of the
twigs, into which the eggs are regularly
and carefully placed. Each nest con-
tains about twenty eggs. The ovipOsitor
is a most ingenious contrivance, and is
composed of three parts, one part being
an awl with which to pierce, and two
parts being opposing saws with which TO
cut And after the nest has been cut
out of the twig the ovipositor acts as a
tube, down which the egg is propelled
into its place in the nest.
TWENTY FEET UNDER GROUND.
After the cicada has laid all her eggs
she loses her strength and dies. She has
lived a dreary underground existence of
seventeen years, to enjoy brief life Of
a few weeks in the air and sunshine.
And now the new brood is started on
seventeen years of life. The eggs hatch
in about six weeks, and the baby cicada
Is about One-sixteenth of an inch long and
very active, though SO light shat it falls
10 the ground from q height sometimes
of 100 feet without the least injury. 1t
has a pair of strong claws with which to
dig hole in the ground, and it puts
them into use Immediately. Down it
goes into the earth, and for seventee
years burrows and burrows, sometim
going as deep as twenty feet, and some
times not one-quarter Of that, but chang
ing its skin twenty-five or thirty times
during its underground travels. 1t lives
on the juices extracted from roots, and
sometimes. but not often, Injuries trees.
When the time for its reappearance
or earth comes near again it gradually
works its way toward the surface, it
finally digs a tunnel upward to the sur
face, going up occasionally to peer about
and discover by signs known to itself
when the 20th of May has come. If the
soil is marshy where it has elected TO
appear, or if heavy rains are prevailing
Mt the time, il has been known TO build
q turret SIX inches above ground, with a
rooted cap, so curved that it can so up
into it and be in safety from drowning
in case Of food. It is Ut the time when
it emerges from the earth, after its long
sojourn there. that it is in most danger