The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1911-07-04
THE COMET OF THE
ANIMAL KINGDOM
Destructive SCourge Feared by
All AgricuIturiStS
THIS WILL BE A LOCUST YEAR
Biographical Sketch Of One of Ma
lures Wonders That Spends Years
In Preparation for Active Elk
istence of Six Weeks.

charlottesville authorities are
sending out notices that this is sew
enteen-year locust year. Early in
the summer millions of these curious
creatures will come from the ground.
where they have for half an average
human lifetime been in preparation
Tor their little day in the open air.
Ihey will appear as grubs, work their
way into trees, and in the course of
half hour change their natures five
times, finally becoming n locust with
wing spread of five inches and a
voice that in chorus is deafening
Ihey Will cover trees so completely
that In moonlight they have the APP
pearance OF being in full bloom and
with the blossoms growing before
ones eyes Then they will Law their
eggs. burrow back into the earth for
another long, dark, subterranean
vigil ard IN 1928 reappear to greet
another generation.
This sounds like a myth, story
for fairyland. but those stubborn
things called facts show beyond doubt
that the insect with the greatest
longevity is n destructive pest and
that the warnings of his appearance
should be heeded-Mr. Cicada Sep
temdecim is dangerous character.
Mrs. Cicada Septemdecim is a trife
worse. while their cousin, Cicada
Tredecim Cthe thirteen-year locusD
may also be expected to pay his re-
spects.
Our records of the appearance of
was first observed by the pilgrims at
Plymouth. The cicada is described
In the early records as "a numerous
company of Flies which were like for
FOR bigness to Wasps or Bundle
Bees. They came out Of little holes
in the ground, and did eat up all the
green things and made such a con-
slant yelling noise as to make all the
woods ring with them and nearly to
deaf the hearers"
Seventeen years later this observa
ton is recorded:
great Observer who hath lived
long in New England did upon occa-
sion relate to a Friend of his in Lon
don where he lately was That
some few years since there was such
Swarm of a certain sort of Insects
In that English colony that for the
Space Of two hundred Miles thew
poysone1 and destroyed all the Trees
OF the Country, there being found in
Vulnerable little holes in the ground.
out OF which these Insects broke
forth in the form of Maggots which
turned into Flyes that had a kind of
tail or sting which they stick into
the tree and thereby envenomed and
killed it.
Since this time his record has been
closely watched.
Scientists tell us that because of
there existing several broods of both
the seventeen and the thirteen-year
locusts that nearly every year is ci-
cada year somewhere in the country.
Some OF these broods are small and
do very little damage.
In 1868, the great cicada year, it so
happened that both the seventeen
and the thirteenyear locusts in their
largest broods appeared together.
This will not occur again until pose.
and by that time, perhaps, we will
have learned how to give them the
reception that will spoil their ambi-
ton to keep us on their visiting list.
His Little Song.
The musical apparatus consists CT
two drums which vibrate, and three