DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF PERIODICAL CICADA. 203 



be found in which these observations were easily studied and, as 

 before stated, it was found very difficult to distinguish between 

 a merely resting or quiescent state and that of the attitude of the 

 insect in feeding without disturbing its pose. To make this a 

 matter of precision, numbers of insects were placed in breeding 

 cages in the laboratory. These cages were provided with fresh 

 stems of shrubs, and twigs from trees, and thus kept renewed 

 daily for some time. At the suggestion of the senior author, an 

 out-door insectary was constructed upon the lawn by using mos- 

 quito netting which was spread over growing shrubs and care- 

 fully fastened to the ground. In this enclosure, scores of speci- 

 mens were kept under close observation for many days. But 

 while cases of apparent feeding were now and then observed 

 among these specimens, upon closer examination it was found 

 that actually a very few were feeding, comprising less than I per 

 cent of those under these conditions of observation. In view of 

 these results, it has seemed to us that one could hardly accept 

 the contention of Quaintance already cited that there was "fre- 

 quent and general" feeding during the insect's life. The senior 

 author's field observations on this matter have been rather 

 extended. He has never observed what has been described as 

 the abundant "exudation of greater or less quantity of sap from 

 the puncture" of such feeding specimens, or "the trunk and 

 larger limbs quite wet with the sap which had escaped in this 

 way," as described by Quaintance. These out-door studies 

 were often made in the early hours of the morning when dew was 

 dripping from every bush but it was not supposed that this was 

 in any case an exuded sap of the plant tissues upon which the 

 insects were found ! But neither under these field observations 

 nor in those carefully restricted to the inclosed insectaries already 

 referred to, was the writer able, except in the rarest instances, 

 to convince himself that feeding occurs at all; certainly it is not 

 a common and general feature of adult life. Furthermore, numerous 

 dissections made of the insects have failed to show the gorged 

 conditions of stomach and rectum which is described by several 

 as plethoric to the point of rupture on the slightest disturbance! 

 Feeding habits among other animals of similar life cycles 

 confirms what has just been pointed out. It is well known that 

 many other insects have similarly anomalous habits and life 



