AN INSECT ENEMY OF COTTON AND CORN. 55 



during the season of 1005. In fact, Mr. Bridges furnished the only 

 authentic account of the insect's prevalence during previous seasons 

 that we were able to obtain. According to his observations the adults 

 usually appear in June and, after egg deposition, disappear before 

 the middle of July. Mr. Bridges, as well as others, was unanimous 

 in saying that the insects were most abundant during dry seasons and 

 in believing that prolonged rainy weather was fatal to the adults. 



No predaceous enemies of the Cicada were noticed, but one farmer 

 furnished a graphic description of an insect " with two stings," which 

 sometimes caught and killed as many as 20 to 30 locusts " in a few 

 minutes." Neither Mr. Hardy nor Mr. Garrett was able to locate the 

 friendly insect corresponding to this description. 



The cicadas were found in abundance in both corn and cotton fields 

 between June 18 and 23, their preference for the corn being evident. 

 The males were relatively scarce, for out of 80 specimens taken at 

 random only 3 were males. This may possibly be accounted for by 

 the fact that the females, preferring corn in tassel for egg deposi- 

 tion, were localized in the corn and cotton fields, while the males 

 may have been generally distributed through the fields and forests 

 and therefore much less in evidence. In case the adult males are 

 shorter lived than the females, this would also account in part for the 

 relative scarcity of the former. 



Adults were not at any time found feeding, and the damage done 

 was exclusively by the puncturing of twigs and stems by the females 

 for egg deposition. In the case of the young cotton plants the punc- 

 tures were made in the side limbs, in the main stem, and occasionallj'' 

 in the leaf stems. Punctures in the latter resulted in death of the 

 leaves, and any considerable number of punctures in the principal 

 stem was invariably followed by the death of the entire plant above 

 the point of injury. The bud just below the injury sometimes gave 

 rise, after the death of the top, to a sprout which gave promise of 

 developing into a plant, much as a peach bud develops into a tree. 



In the case of corn the attack was confined entirely to the stem 

 supporting the tassel, death of the tassel resulting. Practically the 

 only real damage to the corn is the diminution of the amount of 

 IDollen available, the ultimate damage in a case of injury of this kind 

 being hard to even surmise. The egg punctures (fig. 2) were much 

 more abundant upon corn tassels than upon the cotton stems and were 

 located much nearer together, possibly because of the corn presenting 

 less resistance to the ovipositor of the female than the more fibrous 

 stalk of the cotton plant. A number of tassels, showing about the 

 average damage, were taken to the laboratory and the eggs and punc- 

 tures counted. The stems supporting three tassels contained 297, 181, 

 and 215 egg punctures, respectively. A count of the number of eggs 



