550 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



filling the air with their shrill calls, which are produced by two 

 drum-like membranes on the under surface of the first abdominal 

 segment. " About eight or ten days later the sexes begin to 

 mate, and in about four or five days more the females commence 

 to deposit eggs. Each female is said to deposit from three to 

 five hundred eggs in numerous ragged punctures made by her 

 powerful ovipositor in the twigs of shrubs and trees, and sometimes 

 in the stems of herbaceous plants. These hatch in about six or 

 eight weeks from the time they are deposited and the young 

 cicada larvae emerge and fall to the ground. They then burrow 



a, c 



FIG. 401. Egg mass of the periodical cicada: a, recent puncture, surface view, 

 6, same, with surface removed to show arrangement of eggs; c, same, 

 side view; d, egg cavity with eggs removed, and showing the sculpture 

 left by the ovipositor all enlarged. (After Riley, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



beneath the surface and enter upon their long menial existence 

 in the ground, feeding on the liquids of roots and possibly sub- 

 sisting on such nutriment as may be obtained from the soil itself. 

 They change their position from time to time, and may rarely 

 enter the earth for a distance of eight to ten feet or more," though 

 usually within two feet of the surface. " By the twelfth or 

 thirteenth year the larva attains its full growth and in time changes 

 to the intermediate or pupa stage.* During the spring of the 



* Dr. Hopkins and other writers commonly use the terms larva and pupa 

 in describing the Immature stages of the cicada, but there seems no reason 

 for discarding the term nymph used for other Hemiptera, and which is cer- 

 tainly useful in distinguishing the immature stages of insects with incomplete 

 metamorphosis from those with complete metamorphosis which have a true 

 pupa. 



