34 HALF HOURS WITH ESTSECTS. [Packard. 



have seen that the May beetle is about three years in attain- 

 ing the beetle state, and the wire worm and boring beetles, 

 such as the apple borer, may be three or four years in the 

 larval condition, but no other insects are as yet known, with 

 this sole remarkable exception, to be so long lived in their 

 immature state. 



The eggs of the Seventeen Year Cicada to the number of 

 five hundred are laid in June, and about the middle of Jul}', 

 in the Middle States, the grubs (Fig. 23, greatly enlarged) 

 are hatched. They escape into the ground from the twigs 

 on the trees, and make their way to the smaller roots of the 

 tree, burrowing a foot or two below the surface. "When 

 about to change to the winged state, they ascend to the 



surface, making cylindrical 

 ^^' "^* burrows "firmly cemented 



and varnished so as to be 

 water proof." 



It should be here men- 

 tioned that certain broods 

 T «• r^ » A- r^ /i of this species appear once 



Larva of Seventten 1 ear Cicada. ^ ' '■ 



in thirteen years, and this 

 indicates that the ancestors of the present species went 

 through their round of existence in two years, as in the 

 other species. How the wonderful divergence in habits was 

 brought about would form an exceedingly interesting subject 

 of inquiry. 



We are indebted to Dr. "W". I. Burnett for an interesting 

 suggestion concerning the chances of life in this insect, and 

 this may give us some hints regarding the enormous waste, 

 so to speak, of life (though after all it is an example of the 

 economy of nature) involved in the struggle for existence 

 among animals. Says our author, in a paper read at a meet- 

 ing of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science (Albany, 1851), "The female has about five hundred 

 eggs, which, from certain relations of the other sex, which I 



2 



