Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-11-15

A CHAPTER ON ~LocusTs."
Methods OF Making Music Burrowing in
the Gronnd-A Pr zziing Ouestinn-

INGENIOUS OF making Music burrOwing in
the Ground-A Puzziing Question.
There are several kinds of cicada about.
including the seventeen-year and the
thirteen-year ''locusts.' which are no
locusts at all, but real cicadas. The one
that makes Inost of our summer music is
an annual visitor. They all live in the
grub state most of their lives, then come
out Of the ground, crawl up convenient
tree, fasten in their claws. rip open their
skins along the back. and lhen, by a
series of patient efforts, crawl out. or
back out of the crack, perfect insects.
They have now long gauzy wings, wide
heads and handsome, large eyes. When
they first emerge their wings are folded
and wet Their first need is to dry off :;
SO their wings are slowly unfolded and
famed gently against the air Mean
while the juicy creature evaporates a
good deal of its bulk, and is soon well
shaped for flight.
In about one hour it is ready for flight,
and takes a perch higher among the
limbs, when the males begin at once to
strike their love notes. The music is
made by the vibration of chords in a hol-
low in their sides, behind their wings,
the vibration striking a tightly drawn
membrane above them. The rapid alter
nation of contracting and relaxing these
chords produces the noise which we call
buzz or whiz The seventeen and thir-
teen year cicadas, or ''locusts, come
out about a month earlier, and their hab-
its while outside, as true insects, are
/ oh = IL. &c . -
visitor. They eat and lay eggs for about
six weeks, and then die The stridulat-
/ ing noises are not heard beyond August.
/ ! have seen a whole handful of the de-
serted cases or skins of the pup8 left
/ sticking on the trees about our cottage.
1t is curious how perfect they stand, and
yet how empty. 1t is still more curious
to observe the contrast between the sense
organs of the perfect insect and those of
the pup@. The latter has spent his life
under ground and is shaped for that sort
of life, anarrow head for pushing through
the dirt, sharp claws to dig with and no
wings He is peculiarly fitted with organs
to secrete abundant moisture and to ex-
crete it, so that as he tunnels his burrows
are made waterproof with sticky excre-
ton. AS his time for egress comes his
skin hardens and he can no longer freely
execute, so that the insect that is shaped
inside Is sappy, wet affair when it first
emerges.
We can trace these changes in the
lives Of creatures, but can we, after all,
explain them3 There are no mechanical
laws that can account for the transfer
nation from underground borrowers to
big eyed, broad winged flying creatures.
Still more impossible is it to explain the
law or instinct of love that brings the
sexes together and begins another round
OF existence. The mother Cicada laws
her eggs near the tips of limbs Of ash, or
hickory, or oak, or maple trees. In
about six weeks they hatch, and imme-
diately fall or jump to the ground and
begin to buTrOw. The seventeen year
sort burrows during all that number of
years and then comes out for its brief
life Of wings and love- But the annual
sort, of course, only burrows for about
ten months or little more.
| wish you would explain to me how
they ever learned to do this work, either
below or above ground John tells me
to read Darwin and | will find that it
came about by a natural process, or
natural selection. That the first CT
cada was creature that tried to hide
itself, and burowed slightly Those
that burrowed best were safest, and so
the burrowing instinct was slowly
4 formed. Bnt how about Ihese Seventeen
year creatures? | suppose a good deal of
our trouble in thinking out these prob
lens is because we have 10 idea how tiny
brains or mere nerve centers think and
what they are capable of purposing.
Very clearly, we do not do so much Of
the thinking Of the world as we some
times suppose that we do. And those
people who deny reason of any sort to
the a. tal world simply show that they
themselves are unable to reason. There
is thought all about us, and planning,
and memory. and deliberate adaptation.
When you say the insect works by in
stinct, you have still to explain instinct.
Mary E. Spencer in Globe Democrat.