70 Farmers’ Bulletin 1270. 
hatch until a month and a half or two months after being laid. The adult. ~ 
(figs. 141 and 142) measures about 14 inches and is black, the eyes, legs, and 
the margin of the upper veins being orange red. Near the tip of each of the 
forewings is a marking that resembles 
the letter W. The eggs are about one- 
twelfth of an inch in length, pearly 
white, and slightly curved. The 
newly hatched larva is yellowish 
white with reddish eyes. It burrows 
into the ground, where as it grows it 
continues to feed upon the roots of 
plants until the next “locust year” 
arrives. Probably no important in- 
jury follows this subterranean feed- 
ing, even in the worst infested lo- 
calities. 
As a matter of precaution it is best 
Fic, 140.—Cast nymphal skin of periodical pot to set out young orchards during 
cicada. Enlarged. the spring of a “locust year,” and in 
orchards already established, especially of young trees, the winter pruning 
preceding the scheduled arrival of the cicada should be lighter than usual or 
omitted until the insects disappear. After the visitation has passed the in- 
jured wood should be pruned out and destroyed by burning before the eggs 
hatch. Little, if any, success has followed the use of insecticides against the 
adults. Prized plants around the home can best be protected from attack by 
use of mosquito netting or wrappings that will prevent the oviposition of the 
adults. 
SNOWY TREE-CRICKET.” 
Apple orchards more or less neglected and grown up with weeds and other 
rank vegetation or surrounded with such growths are sometimes injured by 
females of the snowy tree-cricket (fig. 148) in the course of its egg laying, 
The eggs (fig. 143) are deposited singly in 
punctures in the smaller branches of the apple 
and other trees. These punctures in them- 
selves are of but little importance, but they 
often form a starting place for fungous dis- 
eases and thus become enlarged into cankerous 
brown spots of some size which do material 
injury as they develop. Colonies of the woolly 
aphis are often found at these places. The 
feeding and egg-laying habits of tree crickets 
favor the dissemination of bark diseases of the 
apple, as careful studies have shown. 
The snowy tree-cricket passes the winter in 
the egg stage in the punctures made in apple 
twigs and other plants, the young developing 
in late spring. The crickets feed on a variety 
of substances, including such other insects as 
plant lice, plant material, and often ripe fruit, 
in which they eat out holes sometimes attrib- 
uted to bees. 
Well-cared-for orchards will not suffer from injury by this insect. Where 
tree-cricket cankers are found, they should be cut out and the surface treated 
with a good wound paint. 
Fic. 141.—Two periodical cicadas 
resting on twig. 
53 Oecanthus niveus DeGeer. 
