THE INSECTS OF AUGUST. 213 



marked by the appearance of vast swarms in the Middle States, 

 we cannot do better than to give a brief summary of its history, 

 which we condense in part from Dr. Harris work. 



The Seventeen-year locust ranges from South-eastern and 

 Western Massachusetts to Louisiana. Of its distribution west 

 of the Mississippi Valley, we have no accurate knowledge. In 

 Southern Massachusetts, they appear in oak forests about the 

 middle of June. After pairing, the female, by means of her 

 powerful ovipositor, bores a hole obliquely to the pith, and lays 

 therein from ten to twenty slender white eggs, which are ar 

 ranged in pairs, somewhat like the grains on an ear of wheat, 

 and implanted in the limb. She thus oviposits several times in 

 a twig, and passes from one to another, until she has laid four 

 or five hundred eggs. After this she soon dies. The eggs 

 hatch in about two weeks, though some observers state that 

 they do not hatch for from forty to over fifty days after being 

 laid. The active grubs are provided with three pairs of legs. 

 After leaving the egg they fall to the ground, burrow into it, 

 and seek the roots of plants whose juices they suck by means of 

 their long beaks. They sometimes attack the roots of fruit 

 trees, such as the pear and apple. They live nearly seventeen 

 years in the larva state, and then in the spring change to the 

 pupa, which chiefly differs from the larva by having rudimentary 

 wings. The damage done by the larva? and pupae, then, consists 

 in their sucking the sap from the roots of forest, and occasion 

 ally fruit trees. 



Regarding its appearance, Mr. L. B. Case writes us (June 15) 

 from Richmond, Indiana: &quot;Just now we are having a tremen 

 dous quantity of locusts in our forests and adjoining fields, 

 and people are greatly alarmed about them ; some say they are 

 Egyptian locusts, etc. This morning they made a noise, in the 

 woods about half a mile east of us, very much like the con 

 tinuous sound of frogs in the early spring, or just before a 

 storm at evening. It lasted from early in the morning until 

 evening.&quot; Mr. V. T. Chambers writes us that it is abounding 

 in the vicinity of Covington, Kentucky, &quot;in common with a 

 large portion of the Western country.&quot; He points out some 

 variations in color from those described by Dr. Fitch, from New 

 York, and states that those occurring in Kentucky are smaller 

 than those of which the measurements are given by Dr. Fitch, 

 and states that &quot;these differences indicate that the groups, 



