202 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Sirrine, of the larger form approaching typical examples also 

 from Worth county, collected by Mr. S. W. Beyer. 



It occurs somewhat commonly in the northwest part of the 

 state and probably is responsible for some of the reports of 

 seventeen year Cicada emanating from that quarter. Mr. E. 

 D. Ball, a graduate of the Agricultural college and whose home 

 is at Little Rock, Lyon county, states that it is found quite 

 abundantly throughout the prairie regions of the north"west 

 part of the state and that it was more abundant in the 70's, 

 before the prairies were broken up, than at present. He gives 

 some interesting obseivations regarding its habits, the most 

 striking being that it occurs on prairie land remote from tim- 

 ber, thus indicating a habit quite different from the other mem- 

 bers of the genus. He states that in herding cattle on the 

 ranges years ago, he has seen them as many as four or five to 

 the square rod of grass in localities where the nearest trees 

 were ten miles away and these only bush willows fringing a 

 stream. During the s^ummer of 1893 he carefully observed 

 them in a lot in town. The lot was bordered on two sides by a 

 double row of trees, box-elder and maples. At any time plenty of 

 the cicades could be found or heard in the grass, but careful search- 

 ing failed to find a single one or any indications of egg deposi- 

 tion. They occur more abundantly in the rich upland grass at 

 the foot of a hill or bordering a meadow, a situation equally 

 favorable to the growth of certain prairie weeds, notably the 

 "shoestring" or Lead plant, Ainorpha canescens, which has a 

 very tough woody stem, a plant which was particularly abun- 

 dant in the lot above mentioned. The cicadas were frequently 

 seen on this plant, but no eggs were found. They appear the 

 latter part of June and only live for two or three weeks at 

 most. 



The form of this species which occurs at Ames is much 

 smaller and with more extensive orange markings than in the 

 western forms ; it is by no means co mmon and no observations have 

 been made as to its breeding habit here. It is so different from 

 the larger Rocky Mountain form that were it not for the inter- 

 mediate forms occurring throughout the range of the species 

 as a whole, there would be little question as to its being recog- 

 nized as distinct. This form agrees with the one described by 

 Emmons as novebofacensis. 



