Packard.] 



INSECTS OF THE GAEDEN. 



33 



The Seventeen Year Cicada (Fig. 22, a, pupa ; b, the 

 same, showing the rent in the back out of which the adult, 

 c, creeps; d, hole made by the ovipositor for the eggs, e, 

 after Rilej^) in its earl}' stages injures the roots of fruit trees 

 by sucking the sap with its beak, while the fly in its peri 

 odical visits deserts the oak trees, its natural food plant, 

 and invades our orchards, causing by the deep stings of 



Fig. 22. 



Seventeen Year Cicada, eggs and piip.a. 



its large, powerful ovipositor the 3'oung twigs ■ and small 

 branches to wither and break off. 



The most remarkable fact about this insect is that, while 

 so far as we know the other species of Cicada pass but two 

 or three years* in attaining the winged, adult state, the 

 present one lives under ground over sixteen years, assuming 

 towards the end of the seventeenth the winged state. AVe 



* The European spec^ics of Cicada live three years, according to Ilaldcinan. 



1 



