Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1902-05-01
This Will Be a Great Locust Year.


This is to be by far the worst 40
Gust year" experienced in this coun-
try since 1885. This month will
witness the sudden onslaught, in 20
States simultaneously, of the largest
brood of"17-year locusts" known to
science. This vast insect army, num-
bering countless billions, has been fol-
lowed in its ravages from the year
l715, since when it has never failed to
reappear in the last week Of May at
regular intervals of II years. Wher-
ever it appeared in 1885, the year of
its last outbreak, it is practically sure
to reappear this year. The entomol-
ogists of the Department of Agricul-
ture are thus able to forecast its field
of operations for this month.
The States to be involved are New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Del
aware, Maryland, District of Columbia,
Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Masns-
chusetts, Vermont, Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ala
bama, Georgia, North Carolina and
Tennessee.
Locust" is an erroneous name for
this remarkable insect. 1t should be
termed the periodical cicada." "Lo-
Gus" should be applied only to the
grasshopper. The cicada became con-
fused with the migratory locust, or
grasshopper, of the Orient, which ap-
pears in vast numbers at long inter-
walls Of time.
The periodical cicada is distinctly
an American species. 1t has the long
est life period of all known insects,
and, according to D. L. Marlatt, one
of the Government entomologists, who
has made special study Of its habits,
it is undoubtedly the most anomalous
and interesting of American insects.
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Each individual of the great cicada
army to visit us this year is II years
old, span of life which cat or dog
could but with difficulty attain, and
in which a generation Of mankind
would be more than possible. In the
year 1885 these myriads of insects en-
tered the earth, and since then they
have not beheld the light Of day. In
June of that year Mother Cicada in
dustriously planted her hundreds of
eggs in the green twigs of the trees
while Father Cicada sat close by and
merrily sang to her his ditty of love.
A few weeks later the ant-like ba-
by cicadas escaped from their shells,
fell lightly to the ground and quickly
burrowed out Of sight, forming for
themselves little subterranean cham
bers or cells adjoining the sappy root
lets of the parent tree, in the fresh
juices of whose twigs the producing
eggs had been deposited for nourish-
ment.
In the underground cell, at first the
size of small grain of birdshot, but
gradually growing with its occupants,
each cicads has remained, within two
feet of the surface, through winter and
summer, buried from light, air and
sun and protected in a manner from
cold and frost. 1t has lived thus in
absolute solitude, knowing only its
moist earthen chamber, separated from
its brothers and sisters, rarely chang
ing its position save as some accident
to the nourishing rootlet has Decessi-
tated its seeking another. In this Sc
pulchral darkness and solitude it is
still patiently waiting for the last
week in May, to then emerge from the
ground, grow wings and enjoy few
weeks only of the society of its fellows;
the warmth and brightness of the sun,
ths fragrant summer air.
Just at the time when this article is
published these billions of waiting ci-
cadas are within about quarter Of
an inch Of the surface of the soil in
the 90 States specified. Each is now
exactly the color and shape Of the
brown 'locust shells" commonly seen
adhering to trees and left there al
most each year by remnants Of once
formidable armies, now widely scat
tered or exterminated. In other
words, the cicada waiting today just
beneath the surface soil-waiting for
some mysterious signal to be sounded