THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA. 95 



43. The seventeen- year Cicada. 



Cicada septendeciinhmu. 



Order Hemiptera ; Family Cicadari^e. 



Stiuging the termiual twigs of the oak and other forest trees and of various fruit 

 trees, the seven teen -year locust, which deposits its long slender eggs in a broken line 

 along the twig. 



Without attempting to recapitulate the history of this famous insect, 

 we would only say that the eggs are deposited from the end of May 

 through June (Fig. 36, d, e) in pairs in the terminal twigs of the oak, etc. 

 The larvte (Fig. 36,/) hatch out in about six weeks after they are depos- 

 ited, and drop to the ground, in which they live, sucking the roots of 

 trees, etc.^ for nearly seventeen years, the pupa state (Fig. 36, tt, b) last- 

 ing but a few days. 



The following remarks on the habits of this insect are taken from our 

 Third Report on the Injurious Insects of Massachusetts: 



As regards the kinds of trees stung by the Cicada, I may quote from a comrannication 

 from William Kite, in the American Naturalist, vol. ii, p. 442, as confirming and add- 

 ing somewhat to Dr. Harris's statements: " Seeing in the July numberof the Naturalist 

 a request for twigs of oak which had been stung by the so-called seventeen-year 

 locust, I take the liberty of sending you twigs from eleven different varieties of trees 

 in which the females have deposited their eggs. I do this to show that the insect 

 seems indifferent to the kind of wood made use of as a depository for her eggs. These 

 were gathered July 1, in about an hour's time, on the south hills of the ' Great Chester 

 Valley,' Chester County, Pa. No doubt the number of trees and bushes might be 

 much increased. The female, in depositing her eggs, seems to prefer well-matured 

 wood, rejecting the growing branch of this year, and using the last year's wood and 

 frequently that of the year before, as some of the twigs inclosed will show. An or- 

 chard which I visited was so badly ' stung' that the apple trees will be seriously in- 

 jured and the peach trees will hardly survive their treatment. Instinct did not seem 

 to caution the animal against using improper depositories, as I found many cherry 

 trees had been used by them, the gum exuding from the wounds, in that case sealing 

 the eggs in beyond escape. 



"The males have begun to die, and are found in numbers under the trees; the 

 females are yet busy with their peculiar office. The length of wood perforated on 

 each branch varied from one to two and a half feet, averaging probably eighteen 

 inches ; these seemed to be the work of one insect on each twig, showing a wonderful 

 fecundity. 



"The recurrence of three 'locust years' is well remembered in this locality — 1834i 

 1851, and 1868. There has been no variation from the usual time, establishing the 

 regularity of their periodical appearance." 



Ao regards the time and mode of hatching, Mr. S. S. Rath von, of Lancaster, Pa., con- 

 tributes to the same journal some new and valuable facts, which we quote: " With 

 reference to the eggs and young of the seventeen-year Cicada, your correspondent from 

 Haverford College, Philadelphia, is not the only one who has failed to produce rhe 

 young by keeping branches containing eggs in their studios. I so failed in 1834 and 

 1851, and indeed I have never heard that any one has succeeded in that way who has 

 kept them for any great length of time. In the brood of 1868 the first Cicadas appeared 

 here in a body, on the evening of the second day of June. The first pair in coitu I ob- 

 served on the 2l8t, and the first female depositing on the 26th of the same mouth. 

 The first young were excluded on the 5th of August. All these dates are some ten 

 days later than corresponding observations made by myself and others in former years. 



