116 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



intimated at the outset, I take this occasion to put on record 

 a few facts in reference to the larval life of Cicada septendecim 

 and the tredecim race thereof, the exceptional nature of its 

 longevity justifying somewhat fuller consideration in this con 

 nection. It is the only species of its family the larval habits of 

 which have been studied with sufficient care, and it is, therefore, 

 impossible to say just how exceptional it is as compared with 

 other members thereof. As the majority of these recur annually 

 over the whole extent of their range, their length of life has been 

 assumed to be bounded by the year. But the same is true of 

 many other insects, notably certain Coleoptera, e. g. , Lachnos- 

 terna, which are known to require nearly three years for the full 

 life-cycle, and more careful study in future will doubtless reveal 

 the fact that other species of Cicada live several years as larvae 

 underground. Having written so fully of Cicada septendecim 

 in past years,* it is unnecessary to repeat here the many interest 

 ing facts connected with it, my design being to bring out a few 

 points which bear on the subject of this address, or which serve 

 either to correct or to render more complete what has already 

 been published, as, also, to give more extended circulation among 

 entomologists to certain experiments which may be watched by 

 others in the future. 



Few insects are more characteristically North American than 

 this, and few have been more fully written about or have more 

 fully interested the public. There is, therefore, a certain appro 

 priateness in dealing with it at the close of the quadricentennial 

 celebration of. the landing of Columbus upon our shores, for 

 while we become accustomed to annually-recurring phenomena, 

 and are interested in the periodical recurrences of any particular 

 species of insect, our interest increases proportionately to the 

 length of the period intervening between such periodical appear 

 ances. A little sentiment is justified in connection with the dif 

 ferent recurring broods of this insect, because they enable us to 

 go back in thought centuries in the past and picture the woods 

 in any particular locality resounding with its peculiar song. 

 Thus, Brood XII, which will appear this year, has its largest 

 distribution in New York and New Jersey, but reaches down to 

 the National Capital, and the ancestors of this very brood, six 

 generations back, commemorated, in their noisy way, the found 

 ing of Washington in 1792; while the preceding generation, 

 seventeen years before, made the woods vociferous during the 

 battle of Bunker Hill. Coetaneously, in 1894, will also appear 



* See more particularly ist Rep. Ins. Mo., 1868, pp. 18-42; Rep. of the 

 Entomologist, Ann. Rep. U. S. Dept. Agr. for 1885, pp. 207-343; and 

 Bull. No. 8, Div'n Ent. U. S. Dept. Agr., 1885. 



