Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-05-04

Esssss2lsx ~ will indicate to citizens,
es.A=es1A far and wide. the coun-
ties in which the in
yaders Will appear.
Prophecy, we are told, is not yet an
exact science, but the process of pre-
dieting this insect invasion is an eN
ception to the rule.
l never religiously believed that ii
could be done until beheld for my
self in the spring of 1902. Four full
years in advance of that date the Off
cial prophets had given me a map of
the predicted theater of war filed
it away, and when the scheduled week
rolled around | visited a spot marked
as within the prcgnosticated field OF
battle Here | saw the enemy ad-
vance and viewed the succeeding
tumult 1t was sight for sore eyes. a
spectacle to be remembered through
out a lifetime.
But the high doings of 1902 were as
nothing compared with those which
Mother Nature will pull off this spring
in 3S9 counties of twenty-one Amer
team states For the first time since
1894 two of the major broods" of
periodical 'locustsH will simultaneous
ly appear.
1t will be the last time within our
natural lives that such an onslaught
will be witnessed, nor Will our emil
dren's children see the like for,
strangely enough, two of these major
broods" Will not again appear at the
same time until century and half
shall have passed.
The two armies are of distinct races
the one peculiar to the north and the
other to the south. The southerners
have been tntrenched under ground
for precisely thirteen years and the
northern warriors have been similarly
hiding beneath their cooler soil for
exactly seventeen twelve months
Those which now are to appear in the
south last saw the scenes of their
birth in the year of the Spanish war
1S9S-while those that are to invade
the north have not gazed upon their
native heath since 1894 In these
years countless millions of the re-
spective races Went into hiding be
meath the soil and since that time not
TO lift his eyes above ground
The two broods will overlap in In
diana while the whole of New Jersey
and the District of Columbia are
nSrked for invasion by the northern
ers. The latter constitute one Of the
best recorded OF the 17-year broods-
one which has been regularly reported
in Connecticut every seventeen years
since 1924, and at equal intervals in
New Jersey since 1775. And the south
erners compose one of the two largest
l3-year broods known to entomologists.
Although others have appeared
among us at more or less frequent in
tervals. these two exact broods have
not appeared together in America
since 1890, nor will they again visit
us at the same time until the year
2l32.
The periodical cicada-found only
in America-lives to be older than any
other insect known to science The
year have respective spans of life
which dog and cat could with but
difficulty attain
Why the northern species lives un-
; derground for exactly seventeen years,
, while the southerners maintain their
subterranean existence for just thir-
teen years-neyer more nor less in
either caSe-is one of the riddles of
science, but is supposed to be due to
differences in climate-to the same
phenomena which cause higher spe-
o,li ~
than in the north
The eggs which bore the countless
billions OF the two broods to appear
this spring were laid in the summers
Of 1894 and 1898. respectively. A few
weeks later the baby cicadas-about
the size of minute ants-escaped from
j, their shells, fell lightly to the ground
!. and quickly burrowed out of sight
each forming for himself a little sub
{ terranean chamber or cell adjoining
the sappy root of the family tree, In
j, whose twigs the productive eggs haG
been deposited for nourishment. lr
this underground cell, at first the size
of small grain or bird shot, bu
gradually growing with it's occupant
, each cicada has remained within two
> feet of the surface through winter ant
!, summer buried from sunlight and air
L 1t has lived thus in solitary confine
ment for thirteen or seventeen years
: as the case might be, knowing only TT
O moist earthen chamber, separated
from its brothers and sisters, rarel.
changing it's position save as som,
Y accident TO the nourishing rootlet ha
, caused it to burTow further, in searcl
Of another.
IS In this sepulchral darkness and soil
d tude each OF these little grubs is toda,
}. awaiting natures signal for it t.
emerge from the ground, grow wing
" and enjoy only few weeks of the sc
l. ciety Of its fellows, the warmth an
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