The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1914-06-23
RIP VAN Wrinkles
In INSECT WORLD
There Are Also HOboes, Jekylls
and Hydes and Others in Bug
land, Says l.. S. Expert

WASHINGTON, June 23.--The Rip
Van Wrinkles, the Jekyll and Hydes,
the aristocrats. the philosophers, and
the "hoboes' OF the insect world are
described in a communication TO the
National Geographic society at Wash
ington, d. c., by Davis Fairchild the
plant explorer who has secured the
world for plants OF economic value
and introduced them into the United
States
In describing the peculiar habits
and remarkable achievements OF in
sects. he says the champion aeronaut
is the king grasshopper, which has
the ability TO jump 100 times its
length II can also sail for l,0v miles
before the wind. These grasshoppers
sometimes 60 in such numbers that
they make a cloud 1000 square miles
in extent
"Its great front lip hides a pair Of
Jaws as effective as a hay chopper,
and it has an appetite as voracious as
that OF a hippopotamus, writes Mr..
Fairchild "a young chick finds itself
shut inside the eggshell and must
work its way out alone but the young
grasshoppers find themselves the
whole nestful--shut in a hardened
case in the ground made by their
mother, and IL takes half dozen OF
them working together TO dislodge
the lid which shuts them in.
"The carrying power of the song OF
the cricket is extraordinary. There
are species whose strident notes can
be heard for a mile, although their
little bodies are scarcely more than
an inch in length. The males alone
are musical and IL is reasonable to
suppose, since the females have ears
in their fore legs. that they are sing
ing to their mates and not 10 man
kind AS one listens to their friend
ly song il IS hard 10 appreciate what
fighters they are among themselves,
the larger ones even turning canni-
balls when food is scarce.
"Of all creatures OF our houses, the
cockroach is the most detested.
Housewives may be surprised to
learn that a cockroach can live Ave
years, and that IL takes year TO de-
velop TO maturity The female lays
her eggs I'm a horny capsule like a
spectacle case. which she carries
about with her until she is ready TO
deposit IL I'm some suitable place,
Later she returns to help her baby
cockroaches out Of their shells.
"The song of the cicada is the
noisiest in the insect world The sew
enteen year cicada has been called
the Rip Van Wrinkle OF the insect
world From its tiny eggs there is
sues a creature with soft white body
and mole-hke front legs II hurries
to the ground and disappears beneath
it's surface, sometimes TO a depth Of
20 feet
For n years IL digs its way
around i'm absolute darkness. and then
comes 10 the surface 70 join in a
marriage revelry OF a few brief
weeks. II Is a full-dedged creature OF
the air. though encased still In grave.
clothes of parchment: but Il soon
splits these up the back, pulls itself
out dries It's powerful wings. and
flies away with the whirr OF an aero
drome 20 live but a few brief weeks.
"The social organization OF the ants
has been the admiration OF human
beings from the earliest times, be-
cause the interest Of the Individual
r. merged so completely into that OF
the colony. Theirs is an organiza-