INJURY CAUSED TO FRUIT TREES. 15 
of the beak of a Cicada will be more serious to some persons than to 
others. That there is no poison gland attached to this beak is no ar- 
gument against its stinging power, for several true bugs are known to 
produce severe stings by their beaks, while the hairs and spines of some 
caterpillars have a similar power. 
THE INJURY WHICH CICADAS CAUSE TO FRUIT TREES.—REMEDIES. 
While living under ground they have been accused of killing pear 
trees, and more especially by Miss Margaretta H. Morris, in accounts 
of them published in 1846. The late Dr. Smith, of Baltimore, however, 
who made extensive observations, denied their being capable of such 
injury. He says: 
“The larva obtains its food from the small vegetable radicels that 
everywhere pervade the fertile earth. It takes its food from the sur- 
face of these roots, consisting of the moist exudation (like animal per- 
spiration), for which purpose its rostrum or snout is provided with three 
exceedingly delicate capillaries or hairs, which project from the tip of 
the snout and sweep over the surface, gathering up the minute drops 
of moisture. This is its only food. The mode of taking it can be seen 
by a good glass.”—In Prairie Farmer, December, 1851. 
The fact that they will rise from land which has been cleared of tim- 
ber, cultivated, and even built upon for over a dozen years, would seem 
to contravene Miss Morris’s statement, while their long subterranean 
existence precludes the necessity of rapid suction. It is also quite 
certain that they rarely kill trees, or we should oftener hear of it, and 
I have captured a gigantic but unnamed species of Cicada on the plains 
of Colorado, 50 miles from any tree, other than a few scattering willows. 
The truth of the matter seems to be, that while they do puneture 
and derive nourishment from the roots of trees, they rarely if ever 
produce in this way any serious injury. This may be due to the fact 
of their slow development, and the necessarily small amount of nour- 
ishment taken at any one time. While I have not been able to prove, 
as asserted by Dr. Smith, that the bristles at the tip of the probos- 
cideal sheath or labium are ever used as vehicles for nourishment, it is 
true that the larva is far more often found in a cavity away from any 
root whatever, than it is fastened to roots. Yet, often in digging for 
and studying this insect in its larva state, since my 1868 article was 
written, I have found the larvie with beaks inserted; in fact they will 
frequently hang by the beak after they are dug up, and the rootlets of 
our forest trees, where Cicadas abound, show scars and often slight 
swellings such as one might expect from the punctures. 
In the perfect state, however, the female is capable of doing great 
injury to trees by hacking up their twigs, in the process of ovipositing, 
and although their injury in the forest is not generally felt, it is a very 
different thing in our orchards, and especially in the nursery. 
