HEV EXTERN YEARS UNDER GROUND. ;jr,0 



came, iL backed down the tube and escaped. (Fiii. lis.) 

 "We have come now to the last stage in the history 

 of this reii.arkable insect. The period for its great 

 change has at length arrived. The seventeen years of 

 grubbing in the darlv ground are over. The voice of 

 Nature is calling within with resistless power, ' Come 

 up higher !' The time appointed for escape is usually 

 the night. There would seem to be good reasons for 

 this, for a host of enemies await them, and at best a 

 multitude will perish. Difterent quadrupeds attack 

 them ; birds devour them ; cannibal insects, as dragon- 

 flies and soldier-bugs, make them their prey ; even ants 

 assail them with success, while hogs and poultry greed- 

 ily feast upon them. 



" For several nights in succession the pupa; continue 

 to issue from the earth. Above fifteen hundred have 

 been found to arise beneath a single apple tree, and in 

 some places the whole surface of the soil has been cut 

 as full of holes as a honeycomb by the eager insects 

 breaking through their prison wall from their long con- 

 finement." 



"•At what time of year does this occur?" Abbey 

 asked. 



" The date of egress varies with the latitude. In the 

 South the pupa; escape in February and March ; here 

 in Pennsylvania about the last of IMay, but in Massa- 

 chusetts not until the middle of June." 



" But the yearly kind comes out later 'n that/' sug- 

 gested Hugh. 



"Yes; Pruinosa begins to appt-ar with us abt)ut the 



