Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-05-04
DISCOVERS four
II YEAR l0CUSTS
L. j. NEWoUlsT, RESIDING NEAR
DUDLEY UNEARTHs LITTLE
PEsTIFERoUs INSECTS.
ARE DUE THIS YEAR
Their Visit Of Ravage to the FIELDS
Of the Farmer Will Start June
Ftrst--ls Very Interesting
Bug.


Bug
While busily engaged with MS spaae
in the soft earth of his orchard, dlg'
ging holes for the planting OF apple
trees, L. j. Newquist, residing four
teen miles north of the city, near
Dudley, suddenly found that ne mao
unearthed four seventeen year locusts,
almost full grown. With the news OF
his discovery comes the realization
that this Is the year for the ravaglne
visit Of this western pest, which at
tacks trees, corn fields and growing
grain and brings devastation and ruin
"a all crops. Mr.. Newquist stated
that these four were fully alive and
that they were found in the ground,
about six inches below the surface.
Although he dug several other places
he failed to locate any more OF the IN
sects. These locusts were found last
week.
Seventeen years ago, very little
damage was done by this pest, ana u
is the hope of all farmers ana 1ruit
growers that such will be the case THIS
year. These insects deposit their eggs
in the little twigs Of trees, causing
them to fall off. The eggs then get In
to the ground and for seventeen years
remain in a dormant state. one OF
the best descriptions of the habits, the
reproduction and injuriousness OF
these locusts is found in the follow
ing from the New York Herald:
Millions of hermits will this spring
souit their narrow underground cells
and at the trump Of nature swarm in
mighty hosts.
They have dwelt for seventeen years
in utter darkness, faring frugally on
roots and juices. and, all oblivious OF
wind and weather, have kept Wlthln
their retreats beneath the clod.
Men have come and gone; the map
OF the world has changed, dynastles
have fallen and new generation mas
arisen since first they began their
vigils in the glebe. Children who saw
this strange race TEEN among the
boughs are now men and women.
Many who were here when this mys-
FERROUS company descended into the
earth from which it is to rise are now
no more, for many are the changes
which have been wrought in less than
two score years.
It is nearly time for these anchor
ties Of the soil to desert their dung
cons, to rear their toVers OF watch
ing or to conceal themselves beneath
sticks and stones or friendly sod,
waiting the signal which shall send
them by myriads on the Way Perllous.
They are to doff their sober habili-
ments of brown for white robes OF
transformation, and then to be endued
in doublets Of lustrous sheen and
glittering gauze, to go gayly making
minstrelsy. SO overnight monks Will
become troubadours, for the seven
teen year locusts" are soon to salute
with song their long lost lord-the
sun.
q, Cicada is the true name of these
creatures, the longest lived of all In
sects. whose existence is daily an
omaly.
Name Misnonner.
The designation seventeen year
locust" is a misnomer, for they are
not, strictly speaking, locusts at all:
To be cicada is to be part OF an
ancient race, for on account OF the
strange contradictions Of his habits
and the curiosity which he has aroused
in inquiring man probably more OBJ
seryations have been made about 1t
than concerning any other OF his,
genus.
TRADITION of the Indians dwell upon
these Insects and their ways. and CEN
turtles ago the song OF the cicada was
heard in the forest primeval.
One of the early chroniclers of ma
tural history records in 1866, in the |
proceedings of the Rolay Philosophical
Society of London, that "a great OBJ
server who had been in New England |
had confided to him that the colony |
was "beset by certain form of great
flies which did come up out OF spigot
holes in the earth
Other observers, both great and
small, have ever since been noting
the ways Of the periodical cicada,
with a devotion largely inspired by
national pride, for the insect is pecu-
liar to North America, and his habitat
is. generally speaking, that part Of the
United States east of the Rocky Noun
tains.
Much confusion attended the efforts
of Investigators to solve his life rid
die, until the discovery was made in
i S45 that there were two races OF
cicada, one which had a cycle of thir-
teen years and was native in the
part OF the United States,
and the other dwelling in the north,
which requires seventeen years for its
development.
All Clcada Has a Pedigree.
! Every periodical cicada which comes
into the light this spring therefore has
a pedigree, and has lived for seven
teen years. If his home Is in states
along the Northern Atlantic seaboard.
He was first in tiny pearly egg
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