Evening star., 1936-04-19
Cicadas to Appear Soon.

OlCdudS W ApPCoA OOO'
THE periodic cicadas, commonly
= known as the 17-year locusts, are
expected to visit the North this sea-
son in numbers which may almost
make a record infestation.
With the cicadas, also, will prob
ably come a revival Of the old super
stition that if the letter W appears on
the wings. a war is in prospect.
A peculiar wing formation Of the
cicada has the appearance OF w
and this coupled with the fact that
somewhere in the world there is usu-
ally a war going on has given rise to
a tendency on the part of the super
stitious to put credence in the pro-
phetic nature of the insect.
Brood x, last seen and heard in
1919, is scheduled to come out from
its long life underground the last OF
May over its usual range-from New
York State west to Missouri and from
Michigan to Northern Alabama and
Georgia. Brood XXI, which has re-
manned in its subterranean cells for
13 years, is due in Louisiana and
Mississippi the last of April or first
of May.
These outbreaks will be harder on
human eardrums than on crops, &C
cording to Lee A. Strong, chief OF
the Bureau of Entomology and Plant
Quarantine, United States Department
of Agriculture. The concatenation OF
shriIl calls that heraldS the brood
return to sunlight is the composite
love song of the males Any damage
/ to vegetation is done by the females.
! With their sawlike appendages, the
/ mothers carve row upon row OF egg
pockets in tree twigs, preferably oak,
! hickory and apple, though peach and
near trees. grapevineS and many other
| plants are satisfactory. Sometimes
| these pockets are so numerous and
so close together that twigS or stems
break off. This haphazard pruning
| has little effect on large trees, but may
injure small ones.
From the time it was first seen by
white men. the periodical clcada has
been the subject of more miSinforma-
| tion than almost any other North
American insect Coming from North
ern Europe. where locusts were un-
known, the Pilgrim Fathers made the
original mistake in identifying the
insects that swarmed suddenly out OF
the New England forests. The Puri-
tans assumed they were another
plague of Egypt sent as punishment
| for sin.
The periodical cicada, however, is
not even remotely related to the IN
sect which, under the name OF To-
Gust. still destroys grain along the
banks Of the Nile, as we'll as in many
other parts of the world and, under
the name of grasshopper, is one OF
the most serious grain pests in the
United States and Canada. The 10
Gust, or grasshopper. with strong chew
ing laws, breaks off the stems OF the
| succulent young grain on which IL
feeds and soon devastates a nelo'
The periodical cicada-a toothless m
sect-sucks its food from plants with
out seriously harming them.
Startling features of periodical ci-
cada outbreaks, one Of which occurs
every year in some part of the coun.
trv. are the suddenness with which
the insects appear and the enormous
numbers that congregate in one area.
Overnight the ground will be riddled
with millions of holes through which
the pupae have crawled.
The adult emerges from the pupal
shell as a small, bizarre looking crea-
ture. milky white. with red eyes. Its
body soon hardens and turns black
and its four nearly transparent wings
unfold. The legs and margins Of the
principal veins Of the wings are bright
orange. Near the outer end Of the
front wing is q very distinct black
"W," produced by deeper pigmenta-
ton.
Early in June the adults start TO
die-flrst the males, then the fe-
males-littering the ground with
wings and dismembered bodies. In
Vulnerable larvae, Matching from the
eggs, fall to the ground, burrow in,
attach their mouths to Q nourish-
ing root and wait for another, II
years to roll around.
Each of the 80 known broods OF
the periodical cicada follows regu-
larly its period of emergence-l7
years in the North and l3 years in the
South. Originally, Mr.. Strong says,
the broodS probably were evenly dis
tributed. Unfavorbale weather, a
catastrophe such as a forest fire or
undue activity of natural enemies may
have given the initial impetus to
periodical broods in various regions.
The important broods, like Brood x,
are known 10 have appeared at reg.