ORDER II. BUGS. 



71 



But Anacreon praises them, and in one of his odes com- 

 pares them with the gods. William Spence, in his " Intro- 

 duction to Entomology," thus translates the satirical words 

 of the ancient Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras : 



" Happy the Cicadas' lives, 

 Since they all have voiceless wives." 



But a German writer, who was probably an old bachelor, 

 in order to show that females of the human species are per- 

 haps too much favored with regard to the organ of speech, 

 says, in a very sarcastic manner : 



" Quando conveniunt Maviella, Sybilla, Camilla, 

 Sermonem faciunt et ab hoc, et ab hac, et ab ilia." 



According to the observations of several species of Ci- 

 cadas made by Pontedera, Aldrovand, Keaumure, and many 

 others, the females deposit many hundred eggs in the ten- 

 der branches of trees, by slitting the bark with their horny, 

 sharp-pointed ovipositor. Their eggs are white, flat, oval, 

 and about the sixteenth of an inch in length. If the 

 weather is favorable to them, the eggs are hatched in about 

 six wrecks, when the young ones leave the tree in the con- 

 dition of larv^, each one being pro- 

 vided with a mouth and six strong 

 feet, resembling the flea. They then 

 retreat into the ground, where they 

 feed on roots, according to the obser- 

 vations of Pontedera, for two years, 

 after which time they come out of the /I 

 ground, climb upon a fence or the trunk 

 of a tree, burst their transparent shell 

 (Fig. 19), and assume their perfect 

 form as four-winged insects. They 

 now mount in the air, and enjoy their 

 short life, flying from branch to branch and from tree to 



Figure 19. 



Grub of Cicada. 



