CICADA. Harvest flies, incorrectly called locusts, are not especially injurious, although in three stages of their existence, as larva, pupa, and in the perfect winged state, they live on the sap of plants. The true locust, incorrectly called grasshopper, will be treated under the name Locust. The Cicada belongs to the order Hemiptera, sub-order Homoptera; insects having four membranous, deflexed wings, usually lying over the back when the insect is at rest. The insects are quite large in size, some of them measuring two inches or more from the front of the head to the tip of the closed wings. The males alone are musical. The musical apparatus producing the peculiar prolonged trilling chirp or cry made by the male is situated on the under side of the body, on the basal ring of the abdo men, and consists of a pair of large plates, largely covering the anterior part of the body, which, acting like a drum, at the will of the insect produces the prolonged tremulous sound we hear. In relation to the natural history of the Cicada we find that, the female deposits her eggs in slits or incisions made in trees or plants, which she cuts with her ovipositor. The eggs remain in these longitudinal incisions for some time, according to the warmth of the season; when hatched by the heat of the sun, the young lame drop to the ground, and immediately bury themselves in the soil, feeding upon the tender subterranean roots, which they pierce with their beak and then suck out the sap. It is a popular but erroneous idea that the females of Cicada are capable of piercing the skin of man kind and then ejecting a poisonous fluid the wound, producing violent inflammation and pain. The insect itself is frequently carried off by a large burrowing wasp or hornet (Sttrus speciosus), which forms deep holes or burrows in the earth, where it deposits its egg or eggs in a half-killed Cicada, which is intended to form a supply of fresh food for the larva until it changes into the pupa state, when it ceases altogether to feed until it emerges as a perfect wasp or hornet The manna of druggists is said to be the concrete juice of a species of Fraxinus, or ash, in flakes, which is produced by a species of Cicada or, most probably, some other insect of the sub-order Homoptera. The insects themselves are destroyed in great numbers by hogs, poultry, and various small animals; but as they never appear in such immense numbers as their rela tives, the seventeen-year locusts, they do very little, if any, damage to the farmer. Cicada septemdecim, or the seventeen-year locust, derives its specific name from the fact that it makes its appearance at stated intervals of seventeen years in immense numbers, when the millions of them, swarming on the forest and fruit trees, almost deafen the observer with their trilling calls to the females. and form an abundant feast to the swine, fowls, etc , and wild animals on the land and, if near a river or lake, to the fishes in the water. They sometimes injure fruit and forest trees by making their longitudinal slits or inci sions in the young branches or terminal twigs, in which to deposit their eggs, many of the branches thus Injured dying down as far as the injury, and afterward being broken off by high winds and literally almost covering the ground. The perfect insects make their appearance from the last of May to July, according to latitude, in immense swarms, and the earth in certain localities is literally honey-combed with the round holes which are made by the insects when issuing from the earth, these holes being bored sometimes through the hardest ground, and sometimes even through well traveled country roads. After pairing, the females deposit their eggs, from ten to twenty or more, in longitu dinal slits, made in pairs, and penetrating to the pith in the terminal shoots and small branches of oak, apple, and other deciduous trees. These
slits are made by the ovipositor of the female. The young larvae hatch out in about six weeks, fall to the ground, and immediately bury them selves ender the earth, where they are said to remain nearly seventeen years in the larva state, feeding on succulent roots of trees and shrubs. When about to change into pupa', the larvae work their way to the surface of the ground, shed their outer skins, and assume the pupa state, somewhat resembling the perfect insect, but having thick and strong fossorial or digging fore legs, with only wing-cases, and utterly incapable of flight. This pupa state is said to last only a few days, during which the pupa lies near the top of its subterranean tunnel Besides the foregoing, there is a species that appear once in thirteen years. Both these species appear with great regularity. The Cicada pruinosa would seem to be irregular in its appearance, since every year there seems to be more or less of this species or an allied one The general color of the seventeen-year Cicada is of a rich yellow or orange-brown, varied with a darker color; the outside edges of the wings are of a light, rich buff or orange-brown, by which alone it can be distinguished from its relative Cicada pruinosa, which is of a green color, with the edges of its wings also green. It is also much smaller. In relation to the constant recurrence of the thirteen-year and the seventeen year locust, Dr. C. V. Riley, the well-known entomologist, says the seventeen-year locusts may be looked for in 1881 in very plentiful num bers in Marquette and Green Lake counties, Wisconsin, in western North Carolina and north eastern Ohio, a few in Lancaster county, Penn., and in Westchester county, N. Y. They will also appear in the neighborhood of Wheeling, West Virginia, and perhaps in parts of Maryland and Delaware. The thirteen year brood may be looked for in Southern Illi nois, throughout Missouri, and in Louisiana, Arkansas, Indian Territory, Kentucky, Tennes see, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Muth Carolina. It is a singular coincidence that this is the year for the appearance of both these broods. Observations extending for more than two hundred years prove that they never fail. The earliest appearance of the periodical Cicada, or locusts, so far as we have any record, occurred at Plymouth, Mass., in the year 1634. Each seventeenth year they have appeared again without fail. The naturalist calculates as confi dently on the future appearance of the locust in a given month in a given year for all time to come, as the astronomer does an eclipse or a transit on some particular day. In the intervals between the appearance of the insect they are down in the earth, in the shape of a worm, living on the sap of young rootlets. In following these they penetrate very deep into the ground, some times going as far down as ten or twelve feet. The season for their appearance and disappear ance differs somewhat with the latitude, though not so materially as one would suppose. They appear a little earlier in the South than in the North; but the last half of May can be set down as the period during which they emerge from the ground in many parts of the country, which they generally leave by the 4th, of July. As is the case with a great many other insects, the males make their appearance several days before the females, and also disappear sooner. Hence in the latter part of the Cicada season, though the woods are still full of females, the song of but very few males will be heard.