RESULT TO THE PLANT OF OVIPOSITION. 107 
broke from the main stems in the following year and fell to the ground, thus completely 
denuding the trees of their fruit-bearing branches.¢@ 
Peach, pear, and apple trees suffer most, and even grapevines are 
often badly injured. With fruit trees in vigorous condition and grow- 
ing rapidly, however, the wounds heal in a few years so that often the 
sears can scarcely be detected; but, as shown by Dr. A. D. Hopkins, 
with recently transplanted trees, the growth of which is slow, and 
with the fruiting and terminal branches of old trees which lack vigor, 
the wounds often do not heal for many years. 
Another form of injury has been charged to this insect by some 
of the earlier writers, viz, that after fillmg the twigs with her egg 
clusters the female completely or partly severs it, causing it to break 
off and die. This opinion is totally without foundation in fact, and is 
undoubtedly based partly on the observation that many twigs are 
broken by the winds and partly on a confusion of the work of the 
Cicada with that of certain oak-pruning beetles, which after oviposit- 
ing in the branches, cut them nearly off, causing them to fall to the 
ground, thus furnishing their larve the dead or dying wood in which 
they develop. 
The absurdity of the theory that the Cicada purposely cuts the 
limbs to weaken them and cause them to break off is shown by the 
fact that wherever a limb is broken, through the weakening from 
excessive puncturing or other causes, and falls to the ground, the dry- 
ing up of the limb invariably causes the eggs to shrivel and die. The 
breaking off of limbs, therefore, is purely accidental, and is confined, 
so far as due to the Cicada, to the smaller terminal twigs which have 
been too thickly oviposited in, the female by so doing defeating her 
own object. The proportion of such broken and fallen twigs, while 
often great enough to give the tree a deadened appearance, is small 
in comparison with the many thicker and stouter limbs which remain 
attached, and probably more than 90 per cent of all the eggs, and 
more than 99 per cent of those that ultimately hatch, are laid in 
twigs which never break off, though often much injured. A very 
few young may come from twigs which are partly broken off, but 
in such instances the flow of sap has not been entirely stopped. 
The after effect of the egg punctures on the twigs is shown in the 
deformity which characterizes their subsequent growth. In the 
process of healing the punctures usually assume a wart or knot-like 
appearance,‘as represented in the accompanying illustration of an 
apple twig (fig. 42). The effect of punctures in hard-maple twigs after 
the lapse of seventeen years is shown in fig. 43, and on various plants 
in Plate I (see p. 12), these illustrations bemg kindly loaned me by Dr. 
Hopkins.” Though ultimately healing over exteriorly with the growth 
a Vintner, Second Report Insects New York, p. 177. 
b Bulletin 50, W. Va. Agr. Exp. Sta., Pls. Il and IV. 
