96 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



loaded • with them, and again in others there are 

 scarcely any. This is particularly the case with the 

 Rose-bug. . The same thing also happens in the vegeta- 

 ble world — one year we are favored with an immense 

 number of apples, peaches, grapes, &c, and the next 

 year we see only a few of them. A superabundant 

 number of other Insects which feed upon the Cicada, 

 changes of temperature, and unfavourable weather, are 

 probably the causes of increase and decrease in different 

 years. And in spite of so many opponents, who be- 

 lieve that the Red-eyed Cicada appears only every 

 seventeen years, I, according to my own experience, 

 am obliged to say, " For all this, it appears every 

 year," as Galileo, when he was compelled to undergo 

 the sentence of public recantation for having taught 

 the revolution of the earth, rose from his knees in 

 saying " E gira nemeno :" Notwithstanding this, it re- 

 volves ! 



Another very general and very popular notion with 

 regard to the Cicada is, that it is the same species, or 

 at least the same genus, with that noxious Insect men- 

 tioned in the Scriptures as one of the plagues of Egypt. 

 This also is entirely incorrect. 



Eleven different names of injurious Insects occur in 

 the Old Testament, called in the Hebrew, Arbe, 

 Gob, Gobai, Gazam, Shagab, Cbanamel, Chasil, Char- 

 go!, Jelek, Solam, and Pselatsal. 



