The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-06-09
sEvENTEEN-YEAR CICADAs
COMING.
A Terror to the Farmers, but Rather
Welcome to the Scientific People.
From the washington ID. Cd star.

! FROM the washington ID. ~ Star.
The seventeen-year cicada has appeared
once more. Thousands upon thousands Of
the members of that much misunderstood
and consequently abhorred family of hem
ipetera have packed their grips, as it were,
and are coming by subterranean rapid tran
sit routes to the upper earth. Once there,
they will cast aside their shabby and dirt
stained travelling clothes, and bloom forth
in all the glory Of their summer fnery,
prepared to disport themselves in two
months outing in the fair land of their
birth, which they have not seen for nearly
two decades. OF course, their sojourn
would not be complete without an excur-
sion to the metropolis, but they will not 60
there until little later in the season, fol-
it is yet too cool. Down in this southern
country, though, they are arriving at all
the stations, in great numbers, and have
already made themselves thoroughly al
home.
But the cicadas are not welcome visitors
The farmers view their advent with dis
trust and apprehension. They say that the
two VS. they bear on their wings mean
war and want, and they prophesy devasta.
ton of crops and other calamities. The
birds, too, are waging an active warfare
against these little creatures of earth and
air.
The Agricultural Department, however,
takes kindly to the seventeen-year 'locust. "
The bug-ologists are so much interested in
them that long ago they took the pains to
classify them into broods. Thay have sent
out circular broadcast among the grang-
gers, stating that brood XVIII. of the
thirteen-year race and brood XII. of the
seventeen-year race will make their APP
pearance in different parts of the country,
and that information regarding them which
is not already known will be thankfully
received by the department. The States
of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and
Virginia, and the Indian Territory will be
visited by the thirteen-year brood; and
Connecticut, the District of Columbia, In
diana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey,
New York within the city of New York,
on Staten Island, western Long Island,
and along both sides of the Hudson River
as far north as Troy, North Carolina, and
| Virginia will see the seventeen-year cicada.
The two races differ only in the period
of maturity. Hence the two broods which
appear this year will not be seen together
again for about 500 years, although broods
of the different periods will come together
frequently. The seventeen-year race of
this season was here in 1877, while the
thirteen-year brood came up in 1881. In
deed, some broods appear almost every
year, but usually in such small numbers
that they are hardly noticed Broods
XVIII. and MI. are exceptionally large
and well recorded, and their maturing 81
multaneously will result in visitation ex-
ceeding that of 1885. The septendecim
broods are common to,the North, while the
tredecim broods infest the South The
territories of the two, however, overlap each
other at points alongthe thirty eighth par
allel.
There is considerable Eisconception re-
garding the seventeen-year cicada. The
name of ''locust" popularity given to it is
erroneous; the so-called ''grasshopper" is
the true locust, and it is the ''grasshopper"
whose appearance in immense swarms or
armies causes so much destruction, partic-
ularly in the West. The cicada is not
what might be termed destructive insect.
The only damage it does is to blight GER
tain of the smaller twigs of fruit and shade
trees and shrubbery, by ovipositing in the
wood. This injury becomes serious only
when the insects are very abundant and
lay their eggs in young nursery stock.
Neither is this species of hemiptera sting
ing fly Although cases of persons being
injured by the cicada have been reported,
not one has been authenticated. The only
thing that could possibly be likened to
sting would be the insertion into ones
flesh of the beak by which the cicada takes
its food, which is sharppointed and quick
in action. There is no poison secreted by
the insect, but perhaps the result of the
inAiction might be a sore spot, not likely,
however, to take on any serious compiica-
ton.
There is no more wonderful creature in
insectdom than this cicada. The transfer
nation process through which it passes is
one of the most remarkable of the pheno-
mena of nature. The female is provided
with little boring instrument in one end
of the evipositor. With this she cuts little
burrows in the branches of the trees, aud
therein lays pearl-white eggs three-six-
teenths of an inch long, which hatch out
in about six weeks When the larva APP
pears it at once drops to the ground, and
with its fore antenne digs its way into the
earth, there to remain at a distance of sew
eral feet below the surface, undergoing
different stages of its life and subsisting on
the radicals of vegetable growth. When
the proper period has elapsed the pupa
comes to the surface, usually some time
in May or June. Immediately seeks the
nearest object, and clinging thereon divests
itself of its skin by splitting it up the back,
and energies creamy-white insect upon
which in the course of an hour colors and
wings manifest themselves.
The male cicada is the singer of the
family. He has three songs, but the one
he is fondest of and sings in concert with
his fellows is that which noted entomolo-
gist has represented by "Tsh-e-e-E-E-E-
E-e-ou," uttered continuously, and prolong-
ed to a quarter or half minute in length,
the middle of the ''song" being shrill, and
its termination gradually lowered until the
sound expires 1t is what in the distance
gives a thrcshing machine sound, and it
may be likened also to the sound made by
a circular saw passing crosswise through a
log. The cicada also gives voice to what
is called the "Phar-r-r-aoh" note, something
like the whistling of rapid train passing
under short tunnel, and to quick, cbirp-
ing sound.
That this insect, in its distribution and
in its numbers, has been and is being seri-
ously affected by our civilization is very
manifest. The records show that as rule
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