326 BOARD OF AGEICULTUKE. 



Those in SAvitzerland County originated from scale-infested trees re- 

 ceived from a nursery in New Jersery some ten or twelve years ago, and 

 so the insects are badly scattered and will have to be carefully watched 

 for some time. A general ignorance concerning the nature of the insect, 

 as well as of the measures intended for its control, has prevented its 

 discovery imtil recently. 



Transportation Companies. 



Although, doubtless, many packages of trees and shrubs which have 

 not had the required certificate attached, have been brought into the 

 State by railroads and express companies, yet I do not believe that the 

 law has been violated, knowingly, to any great extent. Only two cases 

 of violation of tne law by delivering trees without first notifying the State 

 Entomologist have come to my knowledge in the last four years, and I 

 am satisfied that these Avere done through ignorance of the law. 



Investigation Concerning Other Species. 



This was the year for the seventeen-j^ear locust (Cicada septendecim, 

 Linn.) to make its appearance, consequently some observations were 

 made as to the time of its appearance, injury done, etc. 



This insect is well known in most parts of the United States and as 

 its name implies, generally requires seventeen years in which to complete 

 its development or life history, although farther south the period of de- 

 velopment is shorter, requiring only thirteen years to pass through its 

 transformation. The term "locust" as applied to this insect is mislead- 

 ing, because we are accustomed to associate the name "locust" with the 

 grasshopper family, whereas, in the general division of insects into orders 

 and families, entomologists have placed this one Avith the Hemiptera or 

 true bugs, the distinguishing characteristics being found in the mouth 

 parts; the grasshopper having well developed jaws for biting, while the 

 seventeen-year locust has its mouth parts arranged into a stout sucking 

 beak. This latter insect, therefore, can only take its food in the liquid 

 or semi-liquid form and does not disfigure the foliage of plants as does the 

 grasshopper and other leaf-eating insects. The proper name for this insect, 

 therefore, is seventeen-year cicada (Cicada septendecim), and the only 

 real damage done by the adult is during the egg-laying period. Many 

 people have observed this operation during the past summer. The female 

 is provided with a stout ovipositor which she inserts into the young twigs, 

 filling the insertion with eggs, repeating the operation until her store of 

 eggs is exhausted. She then soon dies. The eggs hatch in a few weeks 

 and the young then leave the twig and go into the ground and attach 

 themselves to young roots of plants and feed upon their juices for the 

 next sixteen years, transforming in the spring or early summer of the 

 seventeenth year to the* adult or winged state, in which condition it re- 

 mains only three or four weeks. 



