— 123— 



Cicada septendecim in i88g. 



Before and on receipt of this number of Entomologica Americana 

 many of our readers in the Eastern and Middle States will no doubt have 

 heard the song of that most interesting of our North American insects — 

 the Periodical Cicada. To anticipate inquiries regarding this insect we 

 desire to state that the Cicadas of the present year belong to the 17-year 

 brood VIII, according to the enumeration introduced by Dr. C. V. Riley 

 in his ist IMissouri Report. This brood is a well-established one, and 

 has been recorded in the year 1786, 1804, 1821, 1838, and 1855. There 

 is further strong probability that this is the brood referred to by Morton 

 in his "Memorial" as occurring in Plymouth, Mass., in 1633 (see 

 Harris, Treatise etc., p. 207, ed. Flint). Its re- appearance in 1872 has 

 no doubt been observed in many localities but, strangely enough, there 

 do not seem to be any records thereof in the more accessible literature, 

 and no one has gone into the trouble of collecting the records— if there 

 be any — from the agricultural papers and similar sources. The extent 

 of this brood, as compiled from all available sources, is given by Dr. 

 Riley as follows : " in the south-eastern part of Massachusetts; across 

 Long Island ; along the Atlantic coast to Chesapeake Bay, and up the 

 Susquehanna River at least as far as to Carlisle in Pennsylvania ; also in 

 Kentucky, at Kanawha in (West) Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, on the 

 Ohio river.'" 



The Cicadas reported in 1855 from Buncombe and McDowell 

 counties. North Carolina, have apparently been lost sight of, and it is 

 still doubtful whether they should be referred to this i7.year brood VIII 

 or the 13-year brood XVIII, both having appeared simultaneously in 

 1855. From the localities given by Dr. Riley for the brood XVIII it 

 appears highly probable that these Cicadas belong to this 13-year brood 

 XVIII rather than to the 17-year brood VIII. 



At any Tate the entomologists and their correspondents — no matter 

 whether or not these understand anything of entomology — could do very 

 much this year to more fully ascertain the extent of this brood and to 

 clear up the doubtful points concerning the same, by looking out for, 

 and recording all reports on the appearance of Cicadas or " Locusts" as 

 they are popularly termed. The knowledge of the various broods of the 

 Periodical Cicada is now sufficiently advanced to enable us to eliminate 

 all untrustworthy reports resulting from a confusion of the Cicadas with 

 the true "Locusts" (Grasshoppers) or with the various other non- 

 periodical species of Cicada. J. B. S. 



