214 INSECT CALENDAR. 



appearing in different parts of the country at intervals of seven- 

 teen years, are of different varieties." A careful comparison of 

 large numbers collected from different broods, in different local- 

 ities, and different years, would alone give the facts to decide 

 this intei-estiug point. Mr. Riley has shown that in the South- 

 ern States a variety appears every thirteen years. 



Regarding the question raised by Mr. Chambers, whether the 

 sting of this insect is poisonous, and which he is inclined to 

 believe to be in part true, we might say that naturalists gener- 

 ally believe it to be harmless. No hemiptera are known to be 

 poisonous, that is, to have a poison-gland connected with the 

 sting, like that of the bee, and careful dissections by the eminent 

 French naturalist, Lacaze-Duthiers, of three European species 

 of Cicada, have not revealed any poison apparatus at the base of 

 the sting. Another proof that it does not pour poison into the 

 wound made by the ovipositor is, that the twig thus pierced and 

 wounded does not swell, as in the case of plants wounded by 

 Gall flies, which, perhaps, secrete an irritating poison, giving rise 

 to tumors of various shapes. Many insects sting without poi- 

 soning the wound ; the bite of the mosquito, black fly, flea, the 

 bed bug, and other hemipterous insects, are simply punctured 

 wounds, the saliva introduced being slightly irritant, and to a 

 perfectly healthy constitution they are not poison^s, though 

 they may grievously afflict some persons, causing the adjacent 

 parts to swell, and in some weak constitutions induce severe 

 sickness. Regarding this point, Mr. Chambers writes : "I hate 

 heard — not through the papers — within a few days past of a 

 child, within some twenty miles of this place, dying from the 

 sting of a Cicada, but have not had an opportunity to inquire 

 into the truth of the story, but the following you may rely on. 

 A negro woman in the employment of A. V. Winston, Esq., at 

 Burlington, Boone County, Ky., fifteen miles distant from here, 

 went barefooted into his garden a few days since, and while 

 there was stung or bitten in the foot by a Cicada. The foot 

 immediately swelled to huge proportions, but by various appli- 

 cations the inflammation was allayed, and the woman recovered. 

 Mr. Winston, who relates this, stands as high for intelligence 

 and veracity as any one in this viciaity. I thought, on flrst 

 hearing the story, that probably the sting was by some other 

 insect, but Mr. Winston says that he saw the Cicada. But per- 

 haps this proves that the sting is not fatal ; that depends on the 



