The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-08-05
Nature Study.
THE CICADA, BETTER KNOWN AS THE
LOCUST.

LOCUST.
The song of the locust is familiar
to us all, and yet how few are ac-
quainted with the life history of this
common insect, or are aware that the
singer is not a locust at all, but a CT
cada, a member of an entirely differ
ent order from the true ~locusts of the
Orient and our Western States !
These latter have probably proved a
greater scourge to mankind than any
other insect, are nothing more or less
than grasshoppers.
Like all weIl-regulated insects, the
cicada begins his existence within an
egg, carefully deposited by his parent
in a tiny slit in twigs or fruit. The
little grub, as soon as Matched, at once
descends to mother earth, within
whose bosom he industriously sets to
work to bury himself.
Safe beneath the reach of frosts,
our friend spends the winter months,
sustaining life by slipping the sap of
neighboring roots. Even when warm
weather m again and other cica-
das sing gaily from their trees, the
subterranean exile remains within the
grourd, daily growing larger and
stronger, until a second winter has
come and gone. Then a strange rest
lessness possesses him, and burrowing
steadily upward, he at last energies
from his long retirement on some
warm, moist, August morning. A
rough, horny, e~arth-colored creature
he is, with strong hooked feet and
bulky body. Clumsy is he also, and
staggering along he gropes blindly
about for some perpendicular object,
up which he laboriously begins to
climb.
Presently a slight culver shakes his
form and a little crack opens a-down
his back. It seems almost as if his I'M
wonted eXertions had actually burst
his horny shell, as the gaping wound
reveals a mass of damp material with
in. Slowly the split widens and a
broad and massive head, equipped with
two great, shining eyes, pushes up
ward through the opening, and we
realize that the birth of a cicada is
taking place.
Slowly and surely the head slips
forth, and we note between the two
large eyes, a group of smaller ones
which scintillate with golden Iuster,
seeming to glow with satisfaction at
again viewing the world of sunshine.
With a smooth, gliding motion the
thorax follows the head, and even as
we watch, the first pair of legs are
drawn forth and wave feebly about
seeking for some hold. After these
first legs follow the wings,-tiny,
wrinkled, PUPPY mats of dull green
folded close against the body. Fully
one half the cicada is by this time free,
and yet the soft and fimsy legs have
grasped no support and the whole
weight of the newborn creature is
held by the dry pupa-case still adher-
ing by the now lifeless claws. Slowly
and cautiously the tender insect bends
forward towards the twig or branch,
feeling carefully with it's little legs
until at last the tender toes grasp the
bark. For a moment he moves not,
gathering all his strength for a final
effort. Then exerting all the power
of his new-formed muscles, he tugs
and pulls and strains. All, he is almost
free! only a are quarter inch remain
ing within the wrinkIed shell that for
so long had been his home. One more
tug and he is free at last, and with
out more ado he crawIs deliberately
upward.
He next finds out what his wings are
for, and lives out the few short weeks
of his life.-A. Hyatt VerriII in Frank
Leslie's for February.