The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-10
THE sEvENTEEN-YEAR LocusTs
Friendly Words for a Much-MaIigned
Periodical Visitor.
(From the Pittsburg Dispatch

lrrom the flttsOurS DLspdtchJ
Much maligned has been the cicada sep
| tendecim, the 11-year locust. 1t has been
alleged that he is engaged in painting the
town, but this is not true, although it is
admitted that he has fondness for red
| eye. He has been spoken Of as sweeping
| on the city in swarms. harassing the pop
| ulace, making the green meadows like
unto the Red Sea, destroying the vegeta-
| ton wherever he made his camp.
| AS matte: Of fact, he is an individual
| list. and attends strictly to his own bust
ness; there is nothing red about him but
| his eyes and section of his legs, and nc
: does not feed on vegetation at all. Other
wise the description is all right. The gen.
tie reader will understand that what is said
about him applies equally to her"
With the locusts, as with most other in
sects, the male is more or less Of nom
entity. He lays no eggs, which, in insect
language, signifies that he cuts no ice.
Fanciful stories have been told of house.
wives armed with household utensils fight
Ing voracious enemy; but the enemy"
is not voracious, and 20 fight him there
Is no need
The seventeen-year OLD locust is with us
all right. He felt that he had been grubbing
long enough, and now he is out for fly. In
certain sections Of the town he is found
in abundance; In others no trace OF him
may be presently explained. On Bouquet
Street he is plentiful; on Oakland Square
there are but few of him. Between the
spring in Schenley Park and the Zoo
there are many locusts. In the neigh
borhood Of the Conservatory there are none
at all.
THE cicada is a harmless little beas-
tie" said Superintendent William Fall
coner. of Schenley Park. 1T never eats
tatt -
this respect 1t resembles the butterfly. In
fact. it goes the butterfly one better. The
caterpillar is voracious grub and quick
ly destroys vegetation; the butterfly eats
nothing. The grub of the cicada subsists
on the sap from the roots of the trees,
and does not injure them in the least;
the mature insect eats nothing at all.
There are, of course, locusts that eat
everything before them. the Colorado To-
Gusts, the locusts Of Biblical history but
the cicada does not belong to this class"
Mr.. Falconer told the history of the To-
Gusts. showing specimens of the mature
insect as well as of the pupa. Specimens
of both are to be found in great abun-
dance on Bouquet Street. One amazing
fact about the pupa is that the shell is
complete, legs and all.
There is a hole in the back Of the shell
through which the insect has crawled,
sickly, Whitley grub with soft back, which
presently hardens, and incipient wings.
which presently grow.
Seventeen years ago little grub
dropped to the ground from the branch of
q tree. Maybe 1t was an oak or an apple
tree, but it was certainly not a pine nor
other resinous inhabitant OF the forest
1t burrowed down in the damp, cool earth
and made its home within few feet Of the
surface of the ground uear the roots of
the tree from which 1t had fallen For
years it made Its habitation there, raging
no rent, never worrying about taxes. Ever
and anon it rubbed shoulders with its COM
panions. and maybe they conveyed TO one
another a belief in u glorious hereafter.
And in sixteen years and nine months
(within day or two) it began to make its
way toward the surface of the ground.
pausing while before 1t reached the sur
face to put on coat of mail
That mail is called by scientists a pupa.
By this time the grub had grown rrom a
Vice. wriggly, damp thing to the size of a
respectable black beetle. Glorying in its
new apparel, it forged 1t way to the front,
burst out into the glorious sunlight, and
slowly, painfully climbed up the tree to
the spot from which it had fallen. 1t
hung there and waited for the change in
its existence.
In day or so the coat Of mail was
pierced. In the back Was torn huge