72 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



tree, making music as they go, and in the brief term of 

 four or five weeks fulfill their last destiny, viz., to propagate 

 their species. 



< ' Once a worm, a thing that crept 



On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb and slept. 

 And such is man — soon from his cell of clay 

 To burst a seraph in the blaze of day." 



The Cicadas can not be classed among the injurious in- 

 sects, for they can not devour our vegetables and fruits like 

 other insects, because they have no mouth ; and, as has been 

 said before, they suck with their snouts only the dew of 

 leaves for their nourishment, during the two short months 

 of their existence in their perfect form. Even in their sub- 

 terranean abode, during the condition of larvae, although 

 feeding upon the roots of several plants, their injury to veg- 

 etation is very trifling, and scarcely enough to indicate that 

 the little creature dwells in the ground. 



On the other hand, its utility is unquestioned — thousands 

 of the feathered tribe find in them a delicious food; and Dr. 

 Hildreth, of Marietta, Ohio, says, in his work already men- 

 tioned, that when the Cicadas first leave the earth they 

 are plump and full of oily juices, so much so that they 

 have been used in the manufacture of soap ! ! ! It has also 

 been reported that the Indians boil them and consider them 

 a very palatable dish. ^'' De gustihus non est disjputandum^^ 

 — Every one to his own taste. 



The Cicada is one of the largest insects in this order, 

 some of the exotic species measuring between six and seven 

 inches in the expanse of their wings. Their legs, as has 

 been seen, are most adapted for leaping, and their princi- 

 pal characteristic consists in the structure of that peculiar 

 double apparatus, by which the males are enabled to exe- 

 cute their music. The peculiar construction of this appa- 

 ratus has been carefully investigated by Reaumur, and made 

 known in his " Memoirs." 



