48 
Dr. C. W. Hargitt read a paper entitled: 
THE APPEARANCE OF THE PERIODIC CICADA IN 
ONONDAGA COUNTY. 
( Abstract. ) 
‘ seventeen-year-locust ”’ usually applied to this 
insect is somewhat misleading as it is not a locust at all, belong- 
ing to an entirely different order, the Hemiptera, while the true 
locusts are members of the Orthoptera. The trus designation 
for our insect 1s Cicada septendecim, or the seventeen-year Ci- 
cada. 
Several species of the insect are known, but only one is 
likely to be confused with it hereabouts, namely, the two-year 
species, Cicada tibicen, the ‘‘ dog-day”’ Cicada, or, harvest fly. 
When seen together the two insects are easily distinguishable, 
the latter being considerably larger and heavier in body, with dis- 
tinctively green coloration where the former is reddish. The 
familiar song of the harvest-fly is the well known shrilling note 
so common in the hot days of July and August ringing from the 
trees of orchard or wood. An insect quite indistinguishable from 
the former, and known only as a distinct race is the thirteen-year 
Cicada, or Cicada tredecim. ‘This is chiefly a southern variety 
and without distinct record in this section of the country. 
Among the myriads of insect life there is perhaps none more 
interesting or anomalous than the Cicada, and this for several 
reasons among which may be mentioned : 
1. The anomalous larval period of seventeen years. So 
strange is this considered that it has been, and even continues to 
be, discredited by not a few well informed people. The fact that 
there are various “‘broods”’ so-called, of the insect some of which 
overlap in their distribution the region of others, and so makes 
it appear as if the various broods were but erratic occurrences of 
the same insects at these varying times and circumstances, further 
adds to the incredulity. 
Again the larval habit of seclusion and its slow growth and 
final transformation likewise add to the strange and apparently 
mysterious life history. 
‘ 
The name 
