LOCUST. 



LOCUST. 



crown ; by the transparent and veined wing- 

 covers and wings ; and by the elevation on the 

 back part of the thorax in the form of the letter 

 X. The males have a peculiar organization, 

 which enables them to emit an excessively loud 

 buzzing kind of sound, which, in some species, 

 may be heard at the distance of a mile ; and 

 the females are furnished with a curiously con- 

 trived piercer, for perforating the limbs of trees, 

 in which they place their eggs. The musical 

 instruments of the male consist of a pair of 

 kettle-drums, one on each side of the body, and 

 these, in the seventeen-year Cicada (or locust, as 

 it is generally but improperly called in Ameri- 

 ca), are plainly to be seen just behind the 

 wings. These drums are formed of convex 

 pieces of parchment, covered with numerous 

 fine plaits, and, in the species above named, 

 are lodged in cavities on the sides of the body 

 behind the thorax. They are not played upon 

 with sticks, but by muscles or cords fastened 

 to the inside of the drums. When these mus- 

 cles contract and relax, which they do with 

 great rapidity, the drum-heads are alternately 

 tightened and loosened, recovering their natu- 

 ral convexity by their own elasticity. The 

 effect of this rapid alternate tension and relaxa- 

 tion is the production of a rattling sound, like 

 that caused by a succession of quick pressures 

 upon a slightly convex and elastic piece of tin 

 plate. Certain cavities within the body of the 

 insect, which may be seen on raising two large 

 valves beneath the belly, and which are sepa- 

 rated from each other by thin partitions having 

 the transparency and brilliancy of mica, or of 

 thin and highly polished glass, tend to increase 

 the vibrations of the sounds, and add greatly to 

 their intensity. In most of our species of Ci- 

 cada, the drums are not visible on the outside 

 of the body, but are covered by convex trian- 

 gular pieces on each side of the first ring be- 

 hind the thorax, which must be cut away in 

 order to expose them. On raising the large 

 valves of the belly, however, there is seen, close 

 to each side of the body, a little opening, like a 

 pocket, in which the drum is lodged, and from 

 which the sound issues when the insect opens 

 the valves. The hinder extremity of the body 

 of the female is conical, and the under-side has 

 a longitudinal channel for the reception of the 

 piercer, which is furthermore protected by four 

 short grooved pieces fixed in the sides of the 

 channel. The piercer itself consists of three 

 parts in close contact with each other; namely, 

 two outer ones grooved on the inside and en- 

 larged at the tips, which externally are beset 

 with small teeth like a saw, and a central, 

 spear-pointed borer, which plays between the 

 other two. Thus this instrument has the power 

 and does the work both of an awl and of a dou- 

 ble-edged saw, or rather of two key-hole saws 

 cutting opposite to each other. No species of 

 Cicada possesses the power of leaping. The 

 legs are rather short, and the anterior thighs 

 are armed beneath with two stout spines. 



The duration of life in winged insects .is 

 comparatively very short, seldom exceeding 

 two or three weeks in extent, and in many is 

 limited to the same number of days or hours. 

 To increase and multiply is their principal bu- 

 siness in this period of their existence, if not 

 734 



the only one ; and the natural term of their life 

 ends when this is accomplished. In their pre- 

 vious states, however, they often pass a much 

 longer time, the length of which depends, in 

 great measure, upon the nature and abundance 

 of their food. Thus maggots, which subsist 

 upon decaying animal or vegetable matter, 

 come more quickly to their growth than cater- 

 pillars and other insects which devour living 

 plants: the former are appointed to remove an 

 offensive nuisance, and to do their work quickly; 

 the latter have a longer time assigned to them, 

 corresponding in some degree to the progress 

 or continuance of vegetation. The facilities 

 afforded for obtaining food influence the dura- 

 tion of life ; hence those grubs that live in the 

 solid trunks of perennial trees, which they are 

 obliged to perforate in order to obtain nourish- 

 ment, are longer lived than those that devour 

 the tender parts of leaves and fruits, which, 

 though they last only for a season, require no 

 laborious efforts to be prepared for food. The 

 harvest-flies continue only a few weeks after 

 their final transformation, and their only nour- 

 ishment consists of vegetable juices, which 

 they obtain by piercing the bark and leaves of 

 plants with their beaks; and during this period 

 they lay their eggs, and then perish. They are, 

 however, amply compensated for the shortness 

 of their life in the winged state by the length 

 of their previous existence, during which they 

 are wingless and grub-like in form, and live 

 under ground, where they obtain their food only 

 by much labour in perforating the soil among 

 the roots of plants, the juices of which they 

 imbibe by suction. To meet the difficulties of 

 their situation and the precarious supply of 

 their food, for which they have to grope in the 

 dark in their subterranean retreats, a remarka- 

 ble longevity is assigned to them ; and one 

 species has obtained the name of Cicada sep- 

 tendedm, on account of its life being protracted 

 to the period of seventeen years. 



This insect has been observed in the south- 

 eastern parts of Massachusetts, but does not 

 seem to have extended to other parts of the 

 state. The earliest account that we have of it 

 is contained in Morton's Memorial, wherein 

 it is stated that " there was a numerous com- 

 pany of flies, which were like for bigness unto 

 wasps or bumblebees," which appeared in Ply- 

 mouth in the spring of 1633. "They came out 

 of little holes in the ground, and did eat up the 

 green things, and made such a constant yelling 

 noise as made the woods ring of them, and 

 ready to deafen the hearers." Judge Davis, in 

 the Appendix to his edition of Secretary Mor- 

 ton's Memorial, states that these insects ap- 

 peared in Plymouth, Sandwich, and Falmouth 

 in the year 1804; but, if the exact period of 

 seventeen years was observed, they should have 

 returned in 1803. Circumstances may occa- 

 sionally accelerate or retard their progress to 

 maturity, but the usual interval is certainly 

 seventeen years, according to the observations 

 and testimony of many persons of undoubted 

 veracity. Their occurrence in large swarms 

 at long intervals, like that of the migratory 

 locusts of the East, probably suggested the 

 name of locusts, which has commonly been 

 applied to them in this country. It appears 



