DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. li> 



them may have consisted of other species, mistaken for the true 

 seventeen year locusts. (^^ 



16. In Ohio it is stated on the best authority, that the grubs 

 have been collected in such vast quantities, that they have been 

 used in the manufacture of soap by the farmers in the localities 

 where they are abundant. The number of them is so immense 

 that the ground is described as riddled by their holes. Dr. 

 Hildreth says they dwell for 1 6 years and ten months in a grotto 

 of their own construction, probably near the root of some tree, 

 for they are forest dwellers, and derive their nourishment from 

 the roots of trees, grasses and herbs. In 1846 a large number 

 of these locusts emerged from the earth in Dr. Hildreth' s gar- 

 den, in the branches of which the parent cicada had deposited 

 her eggs in 1829. (^) In 1854 this extraordinary insect was 

 noticed as lieing more wide spread in many places in Illinois 

 than it was on its previous visit. Fruit and forest trees wherever 

 they had been planted on the prairies, were seventeen years ago 

 destitute of these insects, but in 1 854 they came from the ground 

 among such trees as abundantly as in the original timber lands. (3) 

 An enemy there lying concealed and preying for seventeen years 

 upon the choicest treasures of the garden and field, must be en- 

 titled to a place among insect scourges in the first rank. Canada 

 is happily yet free from the destructive presence of this extra- 

 ordinary depredator, but it is found in all the States of the 

 Union surrounding her, warning us of its approach and visit. 

 It appears to infect the oak, apple, poplar, and probably many 

 other trees, for the purpose of depositing its eggs, for which 

 object it })unctures the small limbs and does incalculable injury. 



(1) For a most Interesting account of this insect see page 38 of the first report on 

 the noxious and other insects of the State of New York, Dr. Asa Fitch, 1855- 



(2) p. 216, Vol. 3, 2nd series. H. J. of Science. 



(3) Dr. Fitch's Report, page 43. 



