174 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY. 



brood of it appears each year. It is distributed from New York to 

 Rio de Janeiro. 



The Periodical Cicada, Cicada scptcndccim. — This species is now 

 commonly known as the 17-year locust. But the term locust, as ap- 

 plied to it, is a misnomer, the locusts being Orthopterous insects. 

 I therefore adopt the more appropriate name, Periodical Cicada, 

 which has been proposed for it. This species is remarkable for the 

 long time required for it to attain its maturity. The eggs are laid 

 in the twigs of various trees ; the female makes a series of slits in 

 the twig, into which the eggs are placed. Sometimes this Cicada 

 occurs in such great numbers that they seriously injure small fruit- 

 trees, by ovipositing in the twigs and smaller branches. The larvae 

 hatch in about six weeks. They soon voluntarily drop to the 

 ground, where they bury themselves. Here they obtain nourish- 

 ment by sucking the juices from the roots of forest and fruit trees. 

 And here they remain till the seventeenth year following. They 

 emerge from the ground during the last half of May, at which time 

 the empty pupa-skins may be found in great numbers, clinging to 

 the bark of trees and other objects. The insects soon pair, the 

 females oviposit, and all disappear in a few weeks. 



More than twenty distinct broods of this species have been traced 

 out ; so that one or more broods appear somewhere in the United 

 States nearly every year. In many localities, several broods coexist ; 

 in some cases there are as many as seven distinct broods in the same 

 place, each brood appearing in distinct years. There is a variety of 

 the species in which the period of development is only thirteen years. 

 This variety is chiefly a Southern form, while the seventeen-year 

 broods occur in the North. 



Family VIII. — FULGORID.-E* 



{Lantern-flics ct al.) 



This family is remarkable for certain exotic forms which it con- 

 tains. Chief among these is the great Lantern-fly of Brazil, which is 

 figured in many popular works on insects. Scarcely less strange are 

 the Candle-flies of China and the East Indies. There does not seem 



Fulgoridoe, FulgOra : fulgor, flashing lightning. 



