24 



In 1919 the State of Washington, with the aid of agents of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, attempted the 

 control of the coulee cricket which had devastated large areas 

 in the vicinity of Adrian, Washington. According to Mr. Max 

 Reeher, scientific assistant in the Bureau of Entomology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, western meadowlarks ap- 

 peared in great numbers in the dry coulee in autumn, and began 

 eating the newly hatched crickets. These birds were so effective 

 in controlling the pest that all arrangements for a 1919 control 

 campaign were abandoned. It is said that "the meadowlarks 

 were almost entirely responsible for the complete clean-up of 

 the area." 1 



The "seventeen-year locust," so-called ( Tibicina septendecem) > 

 is not a locust, but belongs to the order Homoptera, containing 

 cicadas, plant lice and scale insects. The destructive cicadas 

 live most of their lives underground, where they feed on roots. 

 They are attacked by many birds when they appear above the 

 surface of the earth. Dr. J. B. Smith says that wherever the 

 English sparrow has been introduced, the periodical cicada is 

 doomed. He says that these birds seem to have an intense 

 hatred for this insect, attacking it and pulling it to pieces in 

 the most wanton manner, and near the large cities where these 

 sparrows are numerous entire broods of the cicada have already 

 disappeared. He asserts that in 1889 these insects appeared in 

 Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York, and in the surrounding 

 woodland, but during a day's careful search he found only a 

 single branch containing their eggs. 2 



Broods of this cicada that were due to appear in certain 

 localities the past season (1920) failed to materialize; perhaps 

 Dr. Smith's account explains why. Grackles also sometimes 

 become very destructive to the periodical cicada. Mr. C. L. 

 Marlatt, who was breeding these insects experimentally, says 

 that under one tree a count and estimate was made of more 

 than 5,000 openings from which the insects had emerged, and 

 under other trees the openings ranged from a few hundred to 

 3,000. Notwithstanding the considerable numbers of cicadas 

 which emerged, not one was seen on the trees during theMays 



1 Burrill, A. C.: California Fish and Game, Vol. 6, No. 1, January, 1920, p. 38. 

 1 Smith, J. B.: Economic Entomology, 1896, pp. 142, 143. 



