Il8 LIVING CREATURES. 



in a single year by destroying their crops ; the lice 

 that afflict human beings and birds; the bed-bug which 

 infests pigeons, swallows, and human habitations. The 

 last two offensive creatures have no wings, and the 

 cockroach takes delight in destroying the larger insect 

 of the two. 



The cicada (cica'da) or harvest fly, improperly called 

 locust, is a bug with a piercing beak which does also 

 the work of a saw. This bug appears 

 in the latter part of summer, when it 

 produces a familiar sound by forcing 

 the air into a ribbed or fluted ket- 

 tle-drum situated in its abdomen. It 

 bores holes in the twigs of trees to 

 lay its eggs in. It is not particularly 

 injurious. 



Another cicada, called the seven- 

 teen-year-locust, appears in some parts 



Cicada-Under side. Qf ^ CQuntry Qnce j n seventeen 



years ; in other places once in thirteen years. It some- 

 times does great mischief. So deep does it bore into 

 the apple-tree twigs that they fall off, and much fruit 

 is lost. After the eggs are deposited, the parent 

 dies and never sees its offspring. The young, when 

 hatched, fall to the ground, and seem to know enough 

 to burrow into the ground, where they remain during 

 the many years of their quiet babyhood, living on the 

 juices of roots. 



Beetles are sheath-winged insects. Their fore-wings 

 are horny in substance, and are used for wing-covers 

 only, and not for flight. Beetles are biters and chew- 

 ers, having for this purpose strong jaws, working, of 



