THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 119 



NOTES. 



Cicadas. — I would like to draw the attention of those 

 interested to the great numbers of the two large species of Cicada, 

 Cicada mcerens, Germ., and Cyclochila Australaiai, Don., now 

 occurring in some of the outlying districts about Melbourne. On 

 Saturday afternoon last (28th), while collecting about Black 

 Flats and Dandenong I was astonished at the enormous numbers 

 of these insects, the males of which kept up such a continuous 

 din (their so-called music) as to be positively deafening. The 

 black species (Cicada mcerens), however, were by far the most 

 plentiful, and I particularly noticed that the two species did not 

 occur in the same paddock. In a paddock at Black Flats the 

 gum saplings were swarming with the green species (Cyclochila 

 Australasias), and the continuous ear-splitting whirring noise, 

 which is much louder than that of C. mazrens, was so deafening 

 that I was glad to beat a retreat. An interesting description of 

 the sound-producing organs of the Cicada is given by Professor 

 Haswell in P.L.S. N.S.W., vol. i., 2nd series, p. 489. 



At Dandenong, while hunting in a large paddock, I was 

 surprised at the swarms of the black species (C. mairens), which 

 (to put it mildly) were in thousands, and which were flying about 

 the large eucalypts and sheoaks, or resting on the branches, and 

 some occasionally falling to the ground. The peculiar empty 

 pupa cases, with the slit down the back through which the imago 

 had emerged, were sticking in hundreds on the trunks of the 

 trees, and some were noticed from which the imago was just 

 emerging. Many of the insects were disabled, and were 

 immediately claimed by the ants, which soon covered them. At 

 about sunset, when the insects were going to rest, the branches of 

 many of the trees were black with them, and on the sheoaks, where 

 they could more easily be seen, they were resting one above the 

 other right along the branches to the very top. On throwing a stick 

 into some of the trees they flew out like a swarm of bees, making 

 a dreadful whirring noise, and settling again in the neighbouring 

 trees, and still only those which were dislodged by the stick flew 

 out, hundreds of others being seen still clinging to the branches. 

 As, of course, is pretty generally known, the female deposits her eggs 

 in grooves which she cuts in a twig, the young larvae descending 

 to the ground, into which they burrow to feed on underground 

 roots. The pupae leave the ground and climb up the trunks of 

 the nearest trees when the imagos are ready to emerge. During 

 the number of years I have been collecting in Victoria I have 

 never before known these insects to appear in such enormous 

 numbers, although they appear commonly every year. I might 

 also mention at the same time seeing a large number of the 

 smaller black species, Cicada melanopygia, Germ., which were rest- 

 ing on the young gums, acacias, &c, about sunset, and were then 

 easily captured. — Jas. A.Kershaw. Windsor, 2nd December, 1896. 



