88 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Family CICADIDyE. 



Contains the largest species in this 

 sub-order, popularly known as "har- 

 vest flies," and incorrectly as 

 "locusts." They are found on shrubs 

 and trees, the males making a shrill- 

 ing sound during the daj . This song 

 or call is very loud and piercing, and 

 is different for each species, so that 

 each may be recognized by this char- 

 acter alone. In the adult stage they 

 feed little or not at all, and are in no 

 sense injurious except through their 

 method of laying eggs in twigs and 

 shoots, and even in this point only the 

 "periodical cicada" offends. 



The larvae live underground and 

 suck the juices of tree and other plant 

 roots, but grow so slowly that they 

 do no appreciable harm. Just how 

 long our common species require for 

 their complete life cycle is not defi- 

 nitely known; but the larva of the 

 "periodical" species is known to live 

 in that stage sixteen years in the 

 north and thirteen years in the more 

 southern States. 



TETTIGEA Am. & Serv. 



T. hieroglyphica Say. Occurs in June 

 and July throughout the pine 

 barrens, and is specifically re- 

 ported from Lakewood, Lakehurst, 

 Lahaway, DaCosta, Anglesea. It 

 is the smallest of our species, the 

 abdomen is almost transparent, and I have noted it ovipositing in 

 cedar. 



TIBiCEN Latr. 



Figg 33- Egg punctures made by the 

 Periodical Cicada, the twig broken at a. 



T. septendecim Linn. The "periodical cicada" or "17-year locust." 

 Occurs at intervals throughout the State, appearing during the last 

 days of May and continuing through most of June. There are two 

 large broods in the State, a third that is fairly marked and two, if 

 not three, that are dying out, and are represented at the present 

 time by a few scattered examples only. The adults cause injury 

 when they appear by their habit of cutting slits to deposit eggs in 

 the terminal twigs of larger trees and in the trunks and branches of 



