THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 29 



gland attached to this beak, is no argument against its stinging power 

 for several true Bugs are known to produce severe stings by their 

 beaks, while the hairs and spines of some caterpillars have a similar 

 power. 



THE INJURY WHICH CICADAS CAUSE TO FRUIT TREES. — REMEDIES. 



While living under ground they have been accused of killing pear 

 trees, and more especially by Miss Margaretta H. Morris, in accounts 

 of them published in 1816. The late Dr. Smith, of Baltimore, how- 

 ever, who made extensive operations, denied their being capable of 

 such injury. He says: 



"The larva obtains its food from the small vegetable radicals that 

 everywhere pervade the fertile earth. It takes its food from 

 the surface oi these roots, consisting of the moist exudation (like 

 animal perspiration), for which purpose its rostrum or snout is pro- 

 vided with three exceedingly delicate capillaries or hairs which pro- 

 ject from the tube of the snout, and sweep over the surface, gathering 

 up the minute drops of moisture. This is its only food. The mode of 

 taking it can be seen by a good glass." — In Prairie Farmer, Decem- 

 ber, 1851. 



While they can,fif they wish, insert their beaks into roots, and 

 very likely do so in some cases, yet I incline to believe, that Dr. 

 Smith's views are correct, for though Dr. Hull, of Alton, Illinois, has 

 often found them firmly attached to different roots by the legs, he has 

 never found the beaks inserted. The fact that they will rise from 

 land which has been cleared of timber, cultivated, and even built 

 upon for over a dozen years, certainly contravenes Miss Morris's 

 statement, while their long subterranean existence precludes the 

 necessity of rapid suction. It is also quite certain that if they thus 

 killed trees, we should oftener hear of it, and I have captured a 

 gigantic but unnamed species of Cicada on the plains of Colorado, 

 50 miles from any tree, other than a few scattering willows. 



Jn the perfect state, however, the female is capable of doing great 

 injury to trees by hacking up their twigs, in the process of depositing, 

 and although their injury in the forest is not generally felt, it is a very 

 different thing in our orchards, and especially in the nursery. 



The following editorial from the old Valley Farmer of November, 

 1855, will show how serious the injury may sometimes be: 



" We planted an orchard of the best varieties of apple trees last 

 spring. We had taken particular pains, not only in selecting the best 

 varieties, but in planting the trees, and hoped in a few years to par- 

 take of the fruit. But our hopes were destined to be blasted. The 

 locusts during the summer destroyed nearly all of them ; not one in 

 six is living. To look at them one would think that some person had 

 been drawing the teeth of a saw over the bark of every tree." 



It also appears that in some instances they injure trees by the 



