68 Farmers’ Bulletin 1270. 
BUFFALO TREE-HOPPER.” 
The injury caused by the buffalo tree-hopper is due to the punctures made 
by the females in egg laying and the scars resulting therefrom. The female, 
with her ovipositor, cuts two slits in the bark on the upper side of the smaller 
branches. The bark between the cuts is loosened and the twigs roughened 
and weakened (figs. 185 and 136). In most sections the buffalo tree-hopper 
is not an enemy of importance to the apple, though there are records of 
serious injury in the upper Mississippi Valley. Young trees usually suffer 
worst, and where the egg punctures are abundant growth of the twigs is 
retarded. It is a native species and is rather generally distributed over the 
Middle and Eastern States, ranging into Canada, but has always attracted 
most attention in the Middle West. The buffalo tree-hopper feeds upon a 
considerable number of pome and stone fruits, upon the locust, cottonwood, 
thornbush, etc., as well as numerous vegetables. 
The insect winters in the egg stage in the little cuts made by the female. 
The eggs are one-tenth of an inch long, cylindrical, whitish, and some 
dozen or less are placed side by side in the incisions in the twigs. The eggs 
hatch in the spring and the young nymphs feed upon various weeds in the 
vicinity until they reach the adult stage. At this time the insect (fig. 157) 
is about three-eighths of an inch in length, grayish, triangular. with enlarged 
prothorax, suggesting in miniature the appearance of a buffalo. 
The most practical method of control consists in keeping down the weeds 
and other food plants of the insect by clean cultivation in and around the 
orchard. In the work of pruning scarred twigs should be removed and burned 
to insure the destruction of the overwintering eggs. 
PERIODICAL CICADA.” 
Few insects have attracted as much public attention as the periodical cicada, 
more popularly known as the “17-year locust.” In northern localities this 
insect appears every 17 years, or oftener where the broods overlap, whereas 
in the South the life cycle is completed in 13 years. The forthcoming of the 
locusts is usually heralded by announcements in the newspapers and by other 
agencies. Frequently the accounts of the impending danger to orchards and 
shade trees are much exaggerated and cause an unwarranted fear of destruc- 
tion. The chief injury to trees is caused by the females ovipositing in the 
twigs; young orchards adjacent to woods often suffer severely, and in ex- 
treme cases young trees may be killed. Older trees suffer much less, par- 
ticularly if the winter pruning is omitted previous to the “locust year.” The 
punctured twigs (figs. 138 and 139) are more or less weakened anc break off 
readily and are aico more subject to attack along the egg scar by the woolly 
apple aphis. 
The periodical cicada is a native pest and is found widely distributed over 
the Atlantic Coast States and tte Middle Western States. The females 
oviposit in the apple, pear, and cther deciduous fruit trees and many forest 
trees, as oak, hickory, ete., but avoid pines, cedars, and other trees that exude 
gummy substances. 
In the spring of the “locust years”? the nymphs leave the soil and migrate 
to the trunks, limbs, and foliage of adjacent trees, where they molt, the cast 
skins (fig. 140) remaining rather firmly attached to the point chosen. Within 
a week or so the females are actively depositing their eggs, which do not 
% Oeresa bubalus Fabricius. 
8? Tibicina septendecim Linnaeus. 
