INSECT SPRRCH. 1 25 



enemy, the sphex insect, " locust catcher," "sand hornet," 

 or " digger wasp." At times of normal humidity the cicada 

 becomes more than usually strident and voiceful. In this 

 regard they can scarcely be excelled by the cicadas of north- 

 ern Africa, of which Dr. Shaw, a traveler of a former gene- 

 ration, thus complains: "In the hotter months of summer, 

 especially from mid-day to the middle of the afternoon, the 

 cicada, tettix, or grasshopper (as we falsely translate it), is 

 perpetually stunning our ears with its most excessively shrill 

 and ungrateful noise. It is in this respect the most trouble- 

 some and impertinent of insects, perching upon a twig, and 

 squalling sometimes two or three hours without ceasing, 

 thereby too often disturbing the studies or short repose that is 

 frequently indulged in these hot climates at those hours. 

 The tettix of the Greeks must have had a quite different 

 voice, more soft, surely, and melodious, otherwise the fine 

 orators of Homer, who are compared to it, can be compared 

 to nothing better than loud, loquacious scolds." 



There are in the United States, according to the late Dr. 

 Henry C. McCook, four species of cicada, two of which are 

 annual in appearance and two periodical. Other writers 

 incline to classify into more species the annual visitor, and 

 are almost persuaded of the existence of but one long termer 

 of two different periods (thirteen or seventeen years) the 

 variation occurring by its holding respectively a southern 

 or a northern habitat. Transplanting of the eggs of the two 

 periodical species has not as yet sufficiently verified the last 

 proposition. By far the better known in Delaware County is 

 the annual Cicada priiinosa, which usually proclaims its 

 arrival during July. 



Most insects undergo a complete metamorphosis : that is, 

 they exist as the ^^v^ the larva, the pupa (which may be 

 regarded as a period of hibernation) and the perfect insect. 

 Not so with the cicada. It is in motion from the time of 

 hatching until, after a short, ethereal existence, it croons its 

 requiem among the trees. 



