12 THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
The cross-veins near the tips of the upper wings of the Periodical 
Cicada form a dusky zigzag mark in the shape of a W. Some persons 
are silly enough to believe that this mark portends war. It occurs alike, 
though not to such a marked degree, on all other Cicadas, and if people 
must have an omen let them rather take the two W’s for warm weather, 
and it will not be hkely to disappoint them. 
ENEMIES OF THE CICADA. + 
Upon leaving the ground to transform, the pup are attacked by dif- 
ferent quadrupeds, by birds, and by cannibal insects, such as Ground-bee- 
tles, Dragon-flies, Soldier-bugs, &c., while hogs and poultry of all kinds 
greedily feast upon them. In the perfect fly state they are attacked by 
at least one insect parasite, for dipterous maggots (the larva, probably, 
of some Tachina fly) may occasionally be found in their bodies. In this . 
state they are also often attacked by a peculiar fungus, which was no- 
ticed by Dr. Jos. Leidy, in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy 
of Natural Sciences for 1851, p. 235, and has since been described as Mas- 
sospora cicadina by C. H. Peck (31st Rept. N. Y. State Mus. Nat. Hist., 
p. 44, 1879). Dr. W. D. Hartman, of West Chester, Pa., speaking of the 
occurrence of this fungus, in 1851, says: ‘The posterior part of the abdo- 
men, in a large number of male locusts, was filled by a greenish fungus. 
* * * Theabdomen of the infected males was unusually inflated, dry, 
and brittle, and totally dead while the insect was yet flying about. Upon 
breaking-off the hind part of the abdomen, the dust-like spores would 
fly as from a small puff-ball.”. One male specimen, received in 1868 
from Pennsy]vania, was affected by the same or a similar fungus, the 
internal parts of the abdomen being converted into what appeared to 
be a brown mold. 
R. H. Warder, of Cleves, Ohio, in speaking of this mold, says: ‘It 
seemed to be a drying up of the contents and membranes of the abdo- 
men, generally of a brown color, and dry and brittle. I found that in 
many cases the male organs of generation remained so firmly attached 
to the female during copulation that the male could only disengage 
himself by breaking away, leaving one or two posterior joints attached 
to the female, and it is these mutilated males which I found affected by 
the peculiar fungus mentioned, and therefore concluded that the ‘ dry 
rot’ might be the result of the broken membranes. I never found one 
thus affected in the very early part of their season, and I never found 
a perfect male thus affected. But this is not positive proof.” 
THE SUPPOSED STING OF THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
It is astonishing what a wide-spread fear exists of the Cicada on ae- 
count.of its supposed stinging power. There is scarcely a paper in the 
United States but published some account of a “locust” sting in 1868, 
while nnpublished accounts were equally numerous. One of the editors 
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