Evening journal., 1902-05-12
SEVENTEEN YEAR
LOCUSTS DIE OF FROST BITES

There seems to be considerable guess
work about the 17-year locuste, and it
is not confined to the citizens. The
locusts themselves are guessing, for
they are, contrary to their custom,
coming out in squads. 1t looks as if
they are sending out a sSirmish line.
| While visiting Reading and exploring
the mountains. a citizen of Whining
ton discovered that many of the To-
Gusts have met a violent death. A
number of them came out of the ground
on Saturday and were killed by the
frost on Saturday night.
Several have been seen around Will
mington.
After sleeping under ground for
nearly two decades. the mysterious in
sects have appeared. The weird insects
are in small numbers, and have
come cut of their ground cells, where
they have existed for many years, only
TO flourish few days and then perish.
IL is not surprising that the Indians
anciently should have attributed TO
the creature baleful influences, though
they used to eat the cicadas, gathering
them in great quantities and preparing
THEM for the table by roasting in a
hot oven. Even civilized people are
apt to be dismayed by its sudden aD-
pearances in armies seemingly innu-
merable. Fear Of its supposed danger
Gus sting" has been widespread at
such times and in some cases fruits
have been avoided in the notion that
they were stung and poisoned. Drink
ing water has actually been under sus-
picion for the same cause, absurd as it
may seem.
The locusts, after issuing from the
countless exit holes in the earth,
swarmed over trees and shrubs, and
making the air vibrate with their
shrll, discOrdant notes, the locusts
leave obvious marks of their presence
in the small wounds. made for the pur-
pose Of depositing eggs, which cover
all THE smaller twigs and branches.
| Thought no serious harm is done forest
trees, fruit trees and young nursery
stock are liable to suffer considerably
With perfect regularity, at the end Of
OF the allotted period, millions of the
insects attain maturity at almost the
same moment For four or five weeks
the winged male sings his song of love
and courtshiD, and the female busies
herself with the placing Of the eggs
whioh are to produce a fresh genera
ton seventeen years later For nearly
two centuries there is a record of the
recurrence of the cicada at seventeen
year intervals, The first written notes
on the subject having been made in
lIl5 The last appearance of the swarm
was in 1885. SO that the next one is
due in 1902. There are other swarms
OF locusts which turn up every year at
different places. but the one expected
next month is by far the largest.
Perhaps the most interesting feature
of the cicada to the popular mind is its
musical apparatus, by means of which
it produces its peculiar note, or song.
Only the male has the gift of song,
and THE mechanism THAT makes the
sound consists of two small drums of
membrane situated on the sides of the
abdomen. These drums are caused to
vibrate by the action of powerful mus
cles, and the noise is varied in tone and
pitch by adjacent structures resem-
bling sounding-boards. The manner in
which the sound is produced may be
compared to the pressing up and down
OF tine bottom of a somewhat bulged
tin pan.
The periodical cicada" belongs to
the great order of sucking insects, IA
miliar to the public mind under the
name Of ''bugs," and which includes,
sn additionto some graceful and attrac-
4 tive species like the seventeen-year
locusts, such foul-smelling species as
the squash bugs, plant bugs, and GER
tain animal parasites. The cicadas,
however, are not only beautiful, but
l'lnobjectionable in their habits. unless
the damage they do to fruit trees and
occasionally to other plants is to be Sc
riously considered. Some kinds of them
measure over six inches in expanse ot
wings. That the fear of their singing