The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-22
HOW lie IocUsTs CLUSTER On 71o LEAVES

and lethargic of files" He does not
eat" the leaves of trees or growing
crops. His wife, the lady cicada, does
lay eggs with a sharp chisel protrud
ing from her underbody. She lays
them in the tender twigs of trees,
preferably forest trees. and hardwoods
by choice of these. And these scars do
some times result in damage to other
wise feeble growths.
There are instances where the
cicada attacked young or feeble fruit
trees successfully. destroying the yield
for a period of years until the scars can
heal and new fruit bearing branches
form. But for most part these are
fruit trees that are neal a forest
growth. With the disappearance Of
the forests-and with the increase in
the English sparrow-the cicada Is
visibly diminishing in numbers.
Otherwise there Is little that can be
done against him. Where valuable
nursery stock is exposed to the known
in advance coming Of the insects 1t
is possible to spray them with pyre-
thrum, kerosene emulsion, mild acid
solutions. Bordeaux mixture or the
lime sulphur wash. This year, how
ever, IL such steps have not already
been taken 1t is probably too late to
do anything, for the females are well
at their work Of egg laying and all
one can 90 is to wait and watch and
after the damage is done to care for
the sick tree with wax bandages, the
| judicious pruning knife, cultivation
T; and fertilization as the tree doctors
care for any other tree that is SINH
larly suffering from a purely mechan-
| ical injury.
For once Matched from the egg, in
| about seven weeks, the Larvae. fluffy.
leggy, hairy. white things. about the
| size OF a birdshot, climb to the edge
OF the twig and with the sublime
| abandon of instinct hurl themselves
Off into space. They are so light that
they float gently to the ground. I'm
mediately upon this contact with
mother earth they scramble busily
about. antlike. until they find a
crevice. Down this crevice goes the
long pair OF hairy antenne. the blunt
snout and the great Enthusiastically
clawed front legs, proportionately as
huge as those of the lobster. But II
L
a marvellous suitability of design.
| Underground Habits.
These great front claws dig aside
the earth and stones. The hairs and
antenna roll the earth into little pei
let's, which the middle legs, bent ul
over the accordion pleated back-alst
equipped with prehehsile hairs-pass
upward to be padded firm behind by
the tail and rearmost legs. Stones
and other particles are similarly
passed back. and with almost unbe-
lievable rapidity the tiny. fragile thing
which the slightest pressure of the
fingers will crush. delves to the root
of a plant eight inches, eighteen
inches, sometimes even many feet be.
low the surface.
Once a suitable root is found tn,
larva fastens- to II with its long suck
ing bill which pierces the root Of tn,
bark. It,was once believed that thii
was responsible for injury to the plant
but the theory Is discounted both OF
results and by estimating that tn,
tiny amount Of nutriment which tn,
larva draws In all the seventeen year
of its existence is hardly appreciate,
In the life Of root or plant Of an,
J size.
Study OF the underground habits o
the cicada has not been easy and IL
life in the dark Is not fully known
This much is certain. however. tina
during the course OF its thirteen larva