Evening journal., 1902-05-24
SEVENTEEN YEAR LOCySTS
ARRIVE IN BIG NUMBER s
Red-eyed Insects PeryadC City and
COuntrY-SOme Of Their
Habits

teen-year locusts, and the old men in
mates of Minquadale Home enjoyed |
themselves yesterday by catching a |
number of the insects. A half dozen |
bright specimens were brought to thel
Evening journal Office by Supelintend-
ont Prettyman. of the home, who re-
ports the locusts plentiful on the lawn
in front of the home.
Paper From Newark
me following has been received from
the nature study department of Della
ware College:
There is probably no insect that
has attracted more general interest
and attention in this country than has
the periodical cicada, or the so-called
seventeen year locust The earliest
settlers doubtless associated it's vast
noisy swarms with the devastating in
vasions of the migratory locust of the
East. Hence the popular name 10
cust.' which has been used so long
that il is doubtful if it will ever be
discarded for the proper name
periodical cicada. For the seventeen
year locust is really not a locust at
lall. That name belongs rightly to the
lgrasshoppers. IL is a cicada, and be-
longs 10 quite a different order-that
of the bugs-from the locusts. The
real locusts or grasshoppers have
lmouthparts made for biting while the
lcioada's mouthparts are grown together
in the form of tube for sucking the
juices of plants.
his insect. which makes its appear
ance once in seventeen years, is of in
g
to une damage which it is supposed to
do. Our first intimation that
the lOcusts have come is
the cast-off skins which we find
clinging to trees and shrubs. Our next
Icare should be to examine the base of
1.-THE tree and see if we cannot find the
mounds or holes from which the ci-
cadas emerged after their seventeen
YEARS hermitage. They are often two
inches in height and therefore easily
lperceptible.
On its emergence from the cast
sl1in the cicada is long and white, ex-
capt for two black spots on it's back,
which develop until they form long,
CLASSY wings, more than covering his
body These he keeps futtering so
THAT they will harden soon. In one
night the cicada undergoes a great
change. His body is now black, with
facings of orange and his wings are
long and hard. He is no longer a
hermit. So happy is he that he feels
as ii he must burst il he does not find
{ some means for expressing happiness
in this beautiful world of sunshine.
So he breaks into song. 1t cannot be
called sweet music. but it is very
wonderful. On his body, just behind
each of his wings is n drum. made of
many folds of membrane A pair of
stout muscles throw these membranes
into vibration and the noise he makes
lis indeed a great one. Only the male
cicadas sing and the principal object
of the singing is the fascinating of the
female.
The damage is all done by the fe-
male With her long ovipositor she
cuts Sits in a twig and places in them
two rows of eggs after which her work
/ is done and she dies. Six weeks later
{these eggs develop into pale lively lit
tie creatures, which, TO the naked eye.
look like tiny white ants. Under a
lense however, they are very different
! 4 llNAA AAOnA hl-n hAG CNalIEu llh0 lONH-
; ter's claws and instead of Jaws like
d ants, they have Long beaks, hollow
like tubes. After running around a
little they drop off on the ground, and
4 Immediately commence to burrow
. down from any small crevices and soon
form cells. which will be their homes
for seventeen long years. These cells
4 are often found at a depth OF two and
+ sometimes as much as six feet below
, the surface. Their existence under
ground seems to be very uneventful.
They find what food is necessary for
them in the roots OF trees, but manage
=, to absorb sufficient in the sixteen
years to last them during their so
Il ioWn in the upper air. as during the
t. winged stage they eat nothing. They
grow slowly under ground. molting
only six times in the seventeen years
I, What may be the meditations of the
+ little hermit cicada during all these
: years we cannot even imagine, but he
J. suddenly becomes possessed with q
F, desire to climb upwards. and begins
4 digging mis- way toward the light He
is now as industrious as he was shift
le7s before. and il takes him only o
/. few weeks to climb out 1t sometimes
I. happens that he comes out before his
y wings are ready to grow. then he
orawls under logs. etc, or builds the
D mounds on the surface of the grouno
from which he later emerges and
Il climbs some tree to which he may
:. cling while he bursts out OF the last
Z larval skin and comes forth in a wing
T. ed insect.
Cecil Bradford Sanderson
Repair Shops Busy