Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-05-21
THE GAZETTE.
MONDAY EVENING. MAY 21, 1894.
The Seventeen Year Locust.

The Seventeen Il car IIoCuSt.
This is the year when the IL ye +
locust will again make its appearance
in this section and from about the Goth of
May to the first of June its voice will
be heard in the land from every bush
and twig-even now some Of their add
vance guard have commenced their
dolefukmusic \ writer in the Cincin-
natl Price Current says of them.
The fact that the periodical cicada,
or so-called "17-year locust is to APP
pear in two great broods the present
season is stated by number of news
papers to have been announced by the
U. S. Department of Agriculture, and
these statements have caused some un-
necessary alarm among those who
do not understand the exact ma
ture of the insect or who con-
found it with true locusts or So
called ''grasshoppers," owing to the
somewhat careless newspaper wording
The department has made no such pub
lie announcement the present year, al
though the cicada chronology publish
ed BY Professor Riley in Bulletin No. )
of the Division OF Entomology in 1856
Z
predicted an extended appearance OF
the insects in 1891
The entomclogist of the department
has been interviewed on~the subject
and states that the damage done by
these insects is as rule, quite imma-
terial, consisting in the slight cutting,
breaking, and deadening of the termi-
nal twigs OF fruit and shade trees by
the females in the act of laying their
eggs. The injury becomes serious only
when the insects are exceptionally
abundant and oyiposit in young nursery
stock.
According to Professor Riley's chlo-
nology given in his first report on the
insects of Missouri QS6S), two broods
are due in 1894, and the insects will
make their appearance during the last
week in May. Brood MI is composed
of the Il year form (Septendecim), and
its last appearance was in 1876. 1t
then occurred in the immediate vicini-
~ of New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey
City, and or both sides of the Hudson
river as far north as Troy, in portions
of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
yania, Virginia and the District of Co.
lumba. Seventeen years previous to
1877 the insect was recorded in North
Carolina, in Dearborn county Indiana,
and in Kalamazoo county, Michigan.
The last three localities, however,
were not substantiated by reports re-
ceived in 1877. In all the localities
above mentioned, cicadas may be eX-
pected during June of the present year.
Brood XNIII is of the thirteen-year
race (tredecim), and as with other 49,
year broods its range is in the more
southern States, rather than in the
northern part OF the country. Its last
appearance was in 1881, when it occur
red in southern Illinois, throughout
Missouri, with the exception of the
northwestern corner, in Louisiana Ar
kansas, Indian Territory, Kentucky.
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, and North and South Caro-
lima.
The larv;e, which live underground
and feed to some extent upon the roots
of plants, gradually rise to the surface
of the ground when nearing full
growth. and from about May 20 TO June
! they begin to make their appearance
above ground in the nymph or pupa
condition, They crawl up the trunks
of trees, cast their skins, and the wing
ed insect comes forth. The adults are
prevalent for five or six weeks, and, as
above stated, do some little damage to
trees and shrubbery by puncturing
them for the purpose of egg-hying.
They hatch in about two weeks and
the young larv;e drop to the ground,
which they enter to begin their long
subterranean life.