The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1911-06-10

PROPHECY, We are tOIu, Is Aoe w "
exact science. but the process OF pre-
dieting this insect invasion is an ex-
ception to the rule.
never religiously believed that 1t
could be done until beheld for my
self in the spring of 1902. Four 1ull
years in advance of that date the ON
cial prophets had given me a map OF
the predicted theater OF war. fled
it away, and when the scheduled week
rolled around l visited spot marked
as within the prognosticated field OF
battle. Here l saw the enemy ad'
vance and viewed the succeeding
tumult. 1t was a sight for sore eyes,
spectacle to be remembered through
out 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
lean states For the first time since
1894 two of the major broods" OF
periodical "locusts" will simultaneous
ly appear
natural lives that such an onslaught
will be witnessed, nor will our chill
dren's children see the like. for,
strangely enough. two of these major
bIpcds" 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 intrenched 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
an individual among them has chosen
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
marked 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 1875. And the south
erners compose one OF the two largest
13-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
1882.
The periodical cicada-found only
in America-lives to be older than any
other insect known to science. The
two broods which are to appear this
year have respective spans Of life
which dog and cat could with but
difficulty attain.
Why the northern species lives un-
foreground for exactly seventeen years.
while the southerners maintain their
subterranean existence for just thir-
teen years-never 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-
cies to mature earlier in the south
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
their shells, fell lightly to the ground
and quickly burrowed out of sight,
each forming for himself little sub
| terranean chamber or cell adjoining
the sappy root of the family tree. in
whose twigs the productive eggs had
been deposited for nourishment. In
this underground cell. at first the size
| of q small grain or bird shot, but
gradually growing with its occupant,
each cicada has remained within two
feet of the surface through winter and
summer buried from sunlight and air.
1t has lived thus in solitary confine-
| ment for thirteen or seventeen years.
as the case might be. knowing only its
moist earthen chamber. separated
| from its brothers and sisters, rarely
changing Its position. save as some
| accident to the nourishing rootlet has
| caused 1t to burrow further. in search
| Ct another.