BUGS. 



227 



sharp note, such as the Fididna mannifera of tropical America, and our native Lyer- 

 man, Cicada tibicen. The latter is a medium sized usually black and green species, 

 which takes two years in its development, and appears during the dog-days in late sum- 

 mer. It varies both in size and colors, is more or less powdered with white beneath, and 

 at base and tip of abdomen above, and is distributed from New York to Rio in Brazil. 

 Its cast pupa skins may often be seen hooked to the bark on the trunks of trees, or to 

 the sides of fences ; the fore-legs being very thick and adapted for digging through the 

 soil, and the claws long, acute, and curved. 



The largest species inhabiting this country is the Cicada marginata. Its colors are 

 black, marked with green, or brownish beneath, where it is also more or less powdered 

 with white. It occurs sparingly all over the eastern United States from Long Island 

 to Florida, and west to Indian Territory, but probably not beyond. The length to 

 the tip of its closed wing-covers exceeds two and a quarter inches. 



Besides the above, there are two other principal types of this group in the United 

 States. These are either black or brown, with red or orange markings ; or clay-yellow 

 with blackish lines and spots. The former is represented by Cicada rimosa of the 

 Northern and Northwestern States. To the second pattern belongs the neat Tettigia 

 hieroglyphica, which enlivens the pine woods of New Jersey with its pleasant note, 

 and spreads away southward until checked by the swamps of lower Florida. When 

 fresh it is tinged with green, the costal margin of the fore-wings is of the same color, 

 the adjoining anastomosis is white, and there are two series of brown spots upon the 

 apical series of cells. This country is signalized by having the longest-lived and most 

 remarkably distributed Cicada to be found anywhere on the globe. This is the C. 

 septendecim, a medium-sized black species, with bright red eyes, banded with red on 

 the abdomen, and with red and orange veins to the base and costal margin of both 

 pairs of wings. 



It lives beneath the earth for about seventeen years, nourishing itself upon the 

 juices of the roots of forest and fruit trees 

 until, being nearly ready to cast off its pupal 

 skin to become winged, it bores a hole to the 

 surface of the soil, and comes forth. At this 

 time it is a clumsy-looking, horn-colored ob- 

 ject, about an inch in length, provided with 

 hooked digging shanks upon the fore-legs. 

 They commonly begin to leave their holes 

 about the middle of May, and so continue to 

 do, sometimes until the first of July. Should 

 the M r eather be persistently rainy when they 

 begin to leave the surface, they construct tubular towers of clay above their holes, into 

 which to retire until drier weather returns. 



Several weeks before the time for issuing, they may be found beneath stones, rails, 

 or other objects lying upon the ground, and of which they have taken advantage for 

 protection until the time for changing the skin has arrived. When ready for this 

 change, they crawl to the side of a fence or trunk of a tree, and grasp it tightly 

 with their claws ; the skin then splits down the back, the tender creature draws 

 itself forth, remains suspended for a few hours until the superfluous moisture has 

 dried from the integument, the wings have stretched to their full size, and the insect 

 flies off. 



FIG. 304. Pupa of seventeen year Cicada. 



