126 OMENSKTTKR : 



Craving indulgence for this slight digression, we bespeak 

 your patience for a somewhat extended history of the seven- 

 teen year cicada. Our earliest account of this insect is to be 

 found in Morton's " Memorial," wherein it is stated that 

 " there was a numerous company of flies, which were like for 

 bigness unto wasps or bumble bees." which appeared in Ply- 

 mouth, Massachusetts, in the Spring of 1633. "They came 

 out of little holes in the ground and did eat up the green 

 things, and made such a constant yelling noise as made the 

 woods ring of them, and ready to deafen the hearers." How, 

 from the structure of their mouths they ate vegetation, the 

 narrator fails to explain. According to Peter Collinson 

 (1762) they appeared in Pennsylvania in incredible numbers 

 in the middle of May, and made such a continual din from 

 morning to evening that people could not hear each other 

 speak. With the single exception of its long earthly impris- 

 onment, the course of development of the seventeen year 

 cicada may be taken as typical of the members of the genus. 



The eggs are one-twelfth of an inch long, obtuse at each 

 end, and of pearl white color. In the act of laying the 

 female selects a branch of moderate size. Facing the tip of 

 such a branch, she bends her piercer, and setting in motion 

 the saws in line with the grain of the wood, detaches splinters 

 so as to form a lid to the perforation, which extends to the 

 pith. The cavity is enlarged to receive ten to twenty eggs, 

 which are laid in pairs, separated by fibre, and with one end 

 pointing upward. The preparation and filling of a single 

 nest occupies some fifteen minutes, a dozen or more being 

 located on a single branch. The cicada flits from tree to tree 

 until her store of 400 or 500 eggs is exhausted, when she soon 

 dies. The period of incubation is variously given at from 

 fourteen to fifty-two days. 



The young cicadas when liberated from the shell are 

 exceedingly lively, and their movements are nearly as cjuick 

 as those of ants. In a few moments instinct impels them to 

 reach the ground. How shall they avoid the many dangers 



