The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-22

this change can almost see the new
insect grow. The wings extend and
harden. the color darkens. the legs
strengthen, fipally the wings spread
a full three inches sometimes-and the
cicada takes flight. On the flank be-
meath the wings and above the legs
a tiny bellows palpitates and the male
bursts into song. Almost as loud 1t
Is as the raucus rattle Of the familiar
''hot weather locust" CT July. But 1t
has the musical note Of the cricket
And in chorus 1t sounds amid the
noises OF a country noon as does the
tree toad In the silences Of the country
night.
Defenceless Against Many Enemies
Fortunately for the trees Of man the
cicada on the wing is not a bug OF
character. He flies no more than he
has to. He is utterly defenceless
against his enemies, who are many.
He knows or shows no sign OF fear.
And so It is that the plague is not the
pest its romancers would have us
think. The boundaries OF EACH particu-
lar swarm are we'll determined, and
with the ravages OF It's enemies and
the disappearance Of its woods they
grow narrower from time to time
rather than wider. Despite his his
tory of nearly 800 years the cicada
Is an aborigine and civilization Is spell :
his doom.
The egg laying process of the fe-
male Is no less interesting than the
other phases Of its life. Her ovipositor
! is an instrument of marvellous
strength and precision. Upon its outer
end, actuated by powerful muscles,
are two saw edged curved lancets.
Working them alternately she digs a
trench through the bark of the tree
almost a sixteenth Of an inch In depth.
Within the same knives chisel out
two little hollows each fitted ac-
curately to the convolutions of the
egg. And when II is done two eggs
as a rule are laid in each hole and
the insect moves on to the next point.
for each position.
That is the story Of the seventeen
year cycle. 1t is story that has been
gathered in painstaking bits OF detail
by careful men since Henry Olden-
burg. the publisher made this note in
Volume l.. No. 8. page 1877 Of the Philo-
sophical Transactions Of the Royal So
ciety OF London on January 8, 1866:
SOME RVATIONs OF
| SwARMS OF STRANGE INSECTS
AND THE MIsCHIEFs DONE BY
THEM.
"A great Observer, who hath lived
long in Neto England, did. upon occa.
sion relate TO a friend Of his In London
where he lately was. That some few
years since there was such a Swarm
OF a certain sort OF Insects in thai
English Colony, that for the space OF
eco Miles they poyson'd and destroyed
al! the Trees OF the Country; ther'
being found innumerable little holei
in the ground out of which those In.
sects broke forth in the form of Nag
cots, which turned into FIyes that haC
a kind Of tail or sting, which they
stuck into the Tree and thereby en-
venomed and killed 1t -
This. according to the Bureau o.
Entymology's Bulletin. was Brood M
XIV. which appeared In 1851. 1t wal
likewise mentioned in a work entitled
| new EnBlhnuS heinoTldll' ny NHtn
aniel Moreton, published at Cambridg,
In 1869. Moreton's reference reveals
tire Indian tradition with regard to tn,
Cicada. He writes: -
Speaking OF the sickness which Il
1888 (Moreton made mistake OF on,
year. as the locusts must have ap
peared In 1634) carried on many O
the whites and Indians in and near t.
Plymouth. In Massachusetts. he says
1T Is to be observed that the Spring
before the Sickness. there was a mum
erous company Of Flies. which wer,
Ike for bigness unto Wdsps or Bum
DE Bees. they came out Of little hole
in the ground. and did eat up tn,
green things, and made such a con
stant yelling noise as made all tn,