416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



Mr. A. C. Burrill, at the time an agent of the United States Bureau 

 of Entomology, reports 7 that — 



The State of Washington, with the aid of agents of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, has been attempting to control the Coulee cricket, which 

 devastates large areas in the vicinity of Adrian, Washington. According to 

 Mr. Max Reeher, scientific assistant in the United States Bureau of Entomology, 

 western meadow larks appeared in great numbers in the Dry Coulee last fall 

 and began eating the newly hatched crickets. So efficient were these birds in 

 controlling the situation that arrangements for a 1919 control campaign were 

 abandoned. The meadow larks were almost entirely responsible for the com- 

 plete clean-up of the area. 



HOMOPTERA (CICADAS, PLANT LICE, AND SCALE INSECTS). 



An insect which is commonly called locust, but which is not closely 

 related to the true locust family, causes some damage in the eastern 

 United States. This is the periodical cicada or 17-year locust 

 {Tibicen septendecem) . J. B. Smith in his Economic Entomology 

 says 8 that " Wherever the English sparrow has been introduced, the 

 periodical cicada is doomed." These birds " seem to have an intense 

 hatred for the insects, attacking and pulling [them] to pieces in the 

 most wanton manner. Near the large cities where the sparrows are 

 numerous, entire broods have already been destroyed. In 1889 the 

 insects appeared in large numbers in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and in 

 the surrounding woodland, but in an entire day's careful search I 

 found only a single branch containing eggs." 



The common crow blackbird, also, according to C. L. Marlatt, is at 

 times a very destructive enemy of the periodical cicada. In his 

 account 9 of an experimental breeding record for this insect, Mr. 

 Marlatt says the holes which the cicadas make when they come out of 

 the soil were so numerous under certain trees — 



as to indicate the emergence of thousands of cicadas. Under one tree a count 

 and estimate were made of more than 5,000 openings, and under other trees the 

 openings ranged from a few hundred to from one to three thousand. The 

 actual emergence took place between May 14 and 21. The writer visited the 

 grove on two evenings, and witnessed the issuance of numbers of cicadas and 

 collected some specimens. In spite, however, of the considerable number of 

 cicadas which emerged, none was seen on the trees during the days and weeks 

 following. Each morning about the planted trees would be found a consider- 

 able group of blackbirds, which evidently had been feasting on the newly issued 

 cicadas. The cast pupal shells were numerous on the trunks of the trees and 

 especially on the foliage, and also on the ground, but scarcely a single cicada 

 escaped the sharp eyes of these birds, and the characteristic song was not 

 heard during June in this grove, although thousands of adults had come forth. 



* Calif. Fish and Game, vol. 6, No. 1, Jan., 1020, p. 38. 



* Pages 142-143 [1896]. 



* Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., IX, 1907, p. 18. 



