28 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



insertion of the ovipositor would necessarily be a gradual opera- 

 tion, requiring at least one minute ; 2d. The real function 

 of the ovipositor is to convey an egg into the wound 

 which it makes, and I have been unable to trace a single 

 case where eggs were found in the flesh. All such ac- 

 counts have proved to be fabrications, and the straightfor- 

 ward report which Mr. V. T. Chambers, of Covington, 

 Ky., gave inthe August number of the American Nat- 

 uralist, of a negro being stung on the foot by a Cicada, 

 proved, after all, to be a mistake, for "Mr. Winston did 

 not see the insect with its instrument in situ ,'" 3d the 

 three following facts, which are reliable, prove that 

 stinging in the usual sense of the term, by this instrument 

 is almost impossible : First, Mr. Wm. Muir, associate editor of Col. 

 man's Rural World, carefully lifted a female from oil* a tree, while 

 she was yet in the act of ovipositing, and as carefully placed her on 

 his little finger, holding it as near as possible in the same direction 

 and position as the branch grew from which she was taken. She 

 instinctively endeavored to continue ovipositing, and, holding firmly 

 to his finger, tried again and again to insert the ovipositor, but with- 

 out the least success, for it could not make the least impression on 

 the soft and yielding flesh, but continually slipped from one side to 

 the other. Second, it is recorded that Mr. Peter A. Brown, of Philadel- 

 phia, Pa., himself inflicted a puncture with the ovipositor, several 

 times, upon his hand, without experiencing any more pain than that 

 produced by a prick of a pin or any other pointed instrument, and 

 that no swelling ensued; third, Dr. Hartman, of Pennsylvania, intro- 

 duced some of the moisture from the ovipositor into an open wound 

 and it caused no inflammation whatever. 



By the Beak, or Haustellum.— The beak (Fig. 13, a) is an organ 

 which both sexes of the Cicada possess, and by which they take their 

 nourishment. I have seen them insert it into and extricate it from 

 the branches of different trees, and know that the operation is quite 

 rapid, and that the instrument must be quite sharp and strong. 

 All the more authentic cases of stinging, indicate this to be 

 the instrument,* and ' it is quite likely that, just as the sting 

 of a bee will affect some persons nigh unto death, and have no effect 

 whatever on others, so the puncture of the beak of a Cicada will be 

 more serious with some than with others. That there is no poison 



*Mr. D. B. Wier, of Lacon, Ills., who well knows the difference between the male and female 

 Cicada,, recollects distinctly, that when they were there in 1854, he was stung in the finger by the 

 male, the sting unt causing very severe pain. 



.Mr. 11. T. Parker, of St. James, Phelps county, Mo., an intelligent fruit grower, who has given 



some tin' • i" the study of insects, infor 1 me that he was stung on the neck by a male Cicada, 



evidently with the beak, and tha< the sting was no! so painful as that of abee. 



Dr. M. .M. K'enzie, of Centerville, Reynolds county, Mo., has communicated the fact that 



Frank Smith, aged II years, living on Eenpeck, in the lower part of Reynolds county, was stung 



by a Cicada on the back of the left hand. The wound healed by first intention, and the next 



morning there was only a black clot, about the size of a pin's head, to mark its place, with scarcely 



elling. 



