THE INSECTS OF AUGUST. 213 



marked by the appearance of vast swarms in the Middle States, 

 we cannot do better than to give a brief summary of its history, 

 which we condense in part from Dr. Harris' woi'k. 



The Seventeen-year locust ranges from South-eastern and 

 Western Massachusetts to Louisiana. Of its distribution west 

 of the Mississippi Valley, we have no accurate knowledge. In 

 Southern Massachusetts, they appear in oak forests about the 

 middle of June. After pairing, the female, by means of her 

 powerful ovipositor, bores a hole obliquely to the pith, and lays 

 therein from ten to twenty slender white eggs, which are ar- 

 ranged in pairs, somewhat like the grains on an ear of wheat, 

 and implanted in the limb. She thus oviposits several times in 

 a twig, and passes from one to another, until she has laid four 

 or five hundred eggs. After this she soon dies. The eggs 

 hatch in about two weeks, though some observers state tliat 

 they do not hatch for from forty to over fifty days after being 

 laid. The active grubs are provided, with three pairs of legs. 

 After leaving the egg they fall to the ground, burrow into it, 

 and seek the roots of plants whose juices they suck by means of 

 their long, beaks. They sometimes attack the roots of fruit 

 trees, such as the pear and apple. Tliey live nearly seventeen 

 years in the larva state, and then in the spring change to tlie 

 pupa, whicji chiefly differs from tlie larva by having rudimentary 

 wings. The damage done by the larva? and pupa?, then, consists 

 in their sucking the sap from the roots of forest, and occasion- 

 afly fruit trees. 



Eegarding its appearance, Mr. L. B. Case writes us (June 15) 

 from Richmond, Indiana: "Just now we are having a tremen- 

 dous quantity of locusts in our forests and adjoining fields, 

 and people are greatly alarmed about them ; s"ome say they are 

 Egyptian locusts, etc. This morning they made a noise, in the 

 woods about half a mile east of us, very much like the con- 

 tinuous sound of frogs in tlie early spring, or just before a 

 storm at evening. It lasted from early in the morning until 

 evening." Mr. V. T. Chambers writes us that it is abounding 

 in the vicinity of Covington, Kentucky, "in common with a 

 large portion of the Western country." He points out some 

 variations in color from those described by Dr. Fitch, from New 

 York, and states that those occurring in Kentucky are smaller 

 than those of which the measurements are given by Dr. Fitch, 

 aud states that "these differences indicate that the groups, 



