The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-08


larger variety measures one and half
inches from the head to the tips Of the
closed wings. They can almost always
expand TO three inches from the tip Of
one wing to the tip Of the other. In gen
eral, they are black, with transparent,
roof-shaped wings. The underside of the
abdomen is { dun orange brown, and in
the male especially, four or five Of the
segments on the back are edged with the
same color. The other size is only two
thirds as large, and lacks the orange
marking. The male is almost totally
without digestive apparatus. He has
but one function to perform. He
lives only few days. The female, how
ever, requires nourishment to develop and
lay her eggs. She has a complete digest
i've system, and she is armed with a for
midable beak with which she punctures
the wood OF the tree on which she settles,
and lives upon the sap She has also a
/ plercer to make place in the wood in
/ which TO deposit her eggs. The piercer
| IS located very much as the sting of a bee
IS. 1t consists Of two lateral plates toothed
| like a saw in the lower portion, and be-
tween them spear-pointed borer.
she selects twig Of apple, or oak, and
! setting near the top of the twig, with her
! face toward the trunk she saws little
! Sits in the wood, piercing it TO the pith
and charging the Sits into assures with
! splintered outer edges. In each assure
! she lays from ten to twenty eggs in pairs,
but separated by tho sawdus5 she has
made. 1t requires about fifteen minutes
TO make assure and I'LL it with eggs.
| Then she moves backward nearer the tip
OF the branch and repeats the process I'M
I'll she has made as many sometimes as
nifty holes in one branch. She lays be-
tween 400 and 500 eggs. When these are
laid she appears TO be exhausted and
a ftnPtv nd Asac-,. q
dies.
The eggs are pearl white and are
Matched in from two to six weeks. The
baby cicada does not resemble either Of
its parents, being only a sixteenth of an
inch in length and, of course, bare of
wings. 1t is as lively as an ant, and after
running around little while it gathers
its legs together and drops to the ground,
where 1t proceeds 10 dig its way out of
sight.
And so begins its underground existence
OF seventeen years-as long as it takes
man to mature. 1t is supposed that the
cicadas fix their sharp beaks in the roots
OF trees and even of grasses and drink the
sap, for they have been dug up with their
beaks fast in the roots. They grow very
slowly. AT the age OF years they are
still only quarter of their ultimate size.
They moult more frequently than once
| year, probably IS or 30 times before
their final transformation. Gradually
! the body shortens and thickens and the
| forward limbs become less like a Holsters
| claws and more like the limbs Of de-
veloped cicada. These same claws are
| excellent for digging. The Larvae of the
| cicada have been found twenty feet be-
low the surface OF the ground. When
the c1cadas Is digging upward it scratches
at the earth over its head with the strong
tarsal claw, which is very like a pick,
and then presses the detached fragments
earth with. its limbs and the lower part
of its abdomen, packing it firm in the
bottom Of its cell When it digs down
ward it forms the soft earth into a pellet,
and placing it on top Of its head, presses
it against the roof OF the cell till it ad-
heres. 1t cleans its forearms when it
| quits working, very much a cat washes
| its face.
The year before their resurrection the
larvae may be found near the surface, and
| just before the Transformation they lie
hidden under stones and logs awaiting
| the word, which seems to be given to all
| simultaneously, to come forth. In southern
! localities the date is May 90 Further
north it is later In Massachusetts it is
not till the middle of June. Finally the
evening arrives. II IS always a pleasant
| evening. AS soon as the sun goes down
| they begin to appear, and by a common
| instinct they crawl in bee line to the
nearest tree. While there are few trees
in the locality the rush for places is
terrific. The ground is so covered with
the wingless little insects that it is
| impossible to take step without crush
ing several. They go up the trunk Of the
tree and crawl out upon its lower
branches and settle thickly upon leaves
and twigs in a horizontal position. In
about an hour after settling the skin
c1olifz down a middle Of bo h.
| the new creature begins to evolve.
In color the forming cicada is creamy
white, with red eyes, two black patch es
on the front of the breast, and q tinge of
| orange at the base of the wings In de-
scribing the metamorphosis, Mr.. Reilly
says:
In about three minutes after the she'll splits
the forming image extends from the rent al
most on the Same plane with the pupe, with
all its members straight and still held By
their tips within the eXuVium. The image
then gradually bends backward, and the
members are all loosened and separated.
With the tip OF the abdomen held within the
exuViun, the rest Of the body hangs ex-
tended at right angles from it and remains in
this position from ten to thirty minutes or
more, the wing pads separating and the front
pair stretches at right angles from body and
obltquely across the hind pair; they then
gradually swell, and during all this time the
legs are becoming hrmcr and assuming the
ultimate portions. Suddenly the image bends
upward with good deal OF effort and cling
ing with its legs to the FIRST object reached
whether leaf, twig, or its own shell, with
draws entirely from the eXuvtGm. and hangs
for the first time with its head up Now the
wings perceptibly swell and expand till they
are fully stretched and hang fatty over the
back perfectly transparent with beautiful
white veining. AS they dry they assume the
rooted position, and during the night the
natural colors Of the species are gradually
assumed In the moonlight such O
tree looks for all the world as though it were
full of beautiful white blossoms in various
stages Of expansion.
OF the 800 eggs laid by one female only
two reach maturity, according to Lintner
Some are caught in the wood of rapidly
growing young tree and never hatch
Ants pray upon the Larvae as they hatch
Many are hurt by their fall from the
tree. Even in the ground during the
whole seventeen years of their develop
ment they are pursued by molas and hogs
and the blackbird follows the plough
with the hope of gathering them In. AS
soon as they come out of the ground to
breed perfect feast is provided for
chickens and cats and English sparrows
and swarms of other birds. One variety
OF hornet (the Stizus) captures the cicada
and stings 1t. The sting seems to benumb
1t. II does not die, but IL remains passive
The hornet carries it to its burrow and
burles 1t there, where il remains alive
but helpless, for months until the wasp
eggs hatch, and the larvae of the wasp
nod mn fb..4 g. -. -.