Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-07-14
.13- AND 17-YEAR
L0CUSTS BACK FOR
REGULAR VISITS
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

| {" pI1cL NlSlIs 1t mas DeSn d lOue
time since we have seen them, anC
heard their merry music, for they
don't come often, and they dom
stay long. 1t will be a long time
before we see them again!
Septendecim is popularity but mis-
| takenly known as the seventeen
year-old locust and Tredecim as the
thirteen-year locust. The seventeen
and~Thirteen are all right, but locust
is all wrong. Locust is a name thai
| belongs properly and should be APP
| piled only to grasshoppers, popular
opinion to the contrary nowithstand
| ing. However, after several hun
| dred years of the error it is toe
much to expect that it will be cor
rected in a hurry. Indeed, it is
| altogether probable that they will
continue to. be known as the seven
teen-year and thirteen.year locusts
| for all time to come.
This year one of the biggest broods
of the seventeen-year race is max
ing it's appearance over a goodly por'
ton of the United States. while one
of the minor, the thirteen-year
broods) is visiting two states.
South Gets Visit
Reports to the department of ag
riculture show that the latter has
kept it's engagement in Louisiana
brother has been heard from in
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Mary
land, West Virginia, Tennessee
| Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
Before the summer is over, how
ever, the seventeen-year visitor will
be in evidence also in the District OF
Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, New Jer
sey, New York, North Carolina, ano
Virginia for one thing known def
nitely about him, is that he comes
regularly and to the same places
That's why~he and his brothers are
called periodical cicadas.
CT L. Marlatt, entomologist of the
department of agriculture, who has
probably devoted more time to the
study Of the periodical cicada than
any other scientist, says of it in a
monograph published by the govern
ment that it is, in the curious
features of its life history, undoubt
eddy the most anomalous and inter
esting of all the insects peculiar t.
the American continent.
Mature All at Once
It is especially remarkable in its
adolescent period, he says, the
features Of particular divergence
from other insects being it's lone
subterranean life of thirteen OIL
seventeen years, during all of which
time it's existence is unsupported ano
unindicated~ by any superficial sign
and the perfect regularity with
which at the end of these periods
every generation, though numbering
millions of individuals, attains ma
turity at almost the same moment
TO the naturalist, familiar in g
general way with the peculiar habits
of this cicada, it's regular periodic
recurrence always arouses the keen
est interest on account of the anoma
lous, life problems presented.
To those Unfamiliar with its
habits, these sudden occurrences not
only Startle but often excite the
gravest fears for the safety of trees
and shrubs OF even of annual plants
Really Does Little Damage
However, the government expert
assures us that the cicada is not as
dangerous or as devastating as he
sounds and as his numbers would
indicate and, in proportion to the
fears he inspires, really does little
damage.
Moreover, he is not so numerous
as he once was, thanks to the de-
Vouring sparroWS and other birds
and due in part to the thinning out
of forests and wooded areas in the
sections of the country where he Is
| found.
His life is as fascinating as a
colorful romance, and it is difficult
to determine at what point of it tc
begin telling about it. Perhaps the
layman will get it best if we begin
when the air is full of the insects
and the male is singing his song
| of love and courtship. This con
tinues for four or five weeks, the
female busying herself with the
placing of her eggs in incisions OIL
borings which she makes in the
small limbs and twigs of trees and
shrubs,
Corpse Carries Eggs
| At the close of it's short adult eX-
istence, if it has escaped its natura
enemies, the cicada falls To the
ground to be dismembered and scat
ttered about, carpeting the ground
with it's wings and the fragments
of it's body A little later the eggs
are Matched and the young ant-like
larvae escape from the wounded
limb or twig, fall lightly to the
J ground and quickly burroW out OF
sight, forming for themselves, little
subterranean chambers or cells S~el
some rootlet, from six inches to two
| feet under the surface.
There they remain through win
| ter and summer, buried from light
ari and sun, but protected in man
ner from cold and frost, for the
seventeen or thirteen years of theil
| hypogeal existence. Then some fine
morning in spring or summer ole
| Mother Nature sets. off an alarm
clock and they all come up to take
| the air. And when they come
they come in swarms. AS many a:
81 of them have bored their way
up through one square foot OF
ground and 10000 to 10000 of then
will emerge within the area sur
rounding one good-sized tree. Short
| Iy after they are out of the ground
the mating and singing begins, ant
the long cycle of thirteen or seven
teen years is begun again.
Their Mason and Dixon Line
The cicada may be said to have
a Mason and Dixon's line all its
own, for it has been established
that the thirteen-year tribe in.
habits the south and the seventeen
year family the north. The genera
trend of the line of division is about
saith or 35th degree north latitude
although there is an overlapping
at some places.
1t is also to be understood thai
these strange visitors do not come
all at one time or in one year. Thai
is to say, it is not the case thai
the periodical cicadas will visit the
United States this year and not bt