128 THE PERIODICAL CICADA, 
different reptiles, mammals, and birds, and by cannibal insects, 
such as ground beetles, dragon-flies, soldier-bugs, etc., while such 
domestic animals as hogs and poultry of all kinds greedily feast upon 
them. The preference shown by hogs running wild in woods for the 
Cicada is especially marked, and we have elsewhere commented on 
the fact of their rooting up the ground to get the pupx in April and 
May, before the cicadas have appeared at the surface of the ground 
for transformation. The birds are, perhaps, the most efficient 
destroyers of the Cicada, and, as we have already noted, the English 
sparrow is particularly destructive to them in and near cities, and, 
indeed, bids fair to completely exterminate them in such locations.¢ 
In the perfect state they are attacked by at least one parasitic fly 
(Tachina sp.), which lives internally in the body of its host. One of 
the large digger wasps, to be later described, also preys upon the 
adult, provisioning its larval galleries with the stung and dormant 
cicadas. The Cicada is also attacked by a fungous disease, some- 
times so abundantly as ultimately to destroy most of the male and 
many of the female insects. 
In the egg state the Cicada has many very effective enemies, com- 
prising mainly parasitic flies belonging to the orders Hymenoptera 
and Diptera, and also various predaceous insects belonging to the 
orders Hemiptera, Neuroptera, and Coleoptera. A number of well- 
known predaceous mites, and other mites whose habits seem to be 
predaceous in this particular, are also found associated with the eggs 
of the Cicada under such circumstances as to leave little doubt of their 
feeding upon the eggs. All of these insect and mite enemies of the 
Cicada are more or less general feeders, and are simply attracted in 
numbers to the Cicada, and especially to the eggs in the case of the 
egg parasites, on account of the abundance of the food presented. In 
other words, we are furnished with a striking example merely of ready 
adaptation to new and favorable conditions. This is true also of the 
fungous disease of the Cicada, which is probably normally present in 
other species of Cicada which are annual in appearance. 
a This is well illustrated by the following experience in 1902 (Brood X) in the city 
of Washington, as recorded by the writer: ‘Within the city very few of the cicadas 
which came out survived more than a few hours, being quickly snapped up and 
destroyed by the English sparrow. The numbers within the city were greatly dimin- 
ished by the English sparrow at the appearance seventeen years ago, the destruction 
by this bird at that time having been noted by Professor Riley and others to be very 
considerable. The sparrows’ work this year, however, was much more effective, 
the cicadas being fewer in numbers; and I doubt whether a single individual, certainly 
very few, ever reached the egg-laying period. For two or three days in the midst 
of the trees on the Museum grounds a few song notes were heard, but ceased very 
soon. In the woods in the country about the city, especially out toward Chevy 
Chase, the Cicada appeared in very considerable numbers, and here did not suffer 
very much from the attacks of birds, and for the most part went through the, normal 
aerial existence successfully.’’ (Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, V, 1903, p. 24.) 
