1909.] 



PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31, 



201 



Agricultural College which is labelled Orono (Me.), in the 

 handwriting of Prof. C. H. Fernald; but Professor Fernald 

 has no recollection of it, and is of the opinion that it probably 

 came from some other place, for this would be the only known 

 case of its occurrence in that State. The rest of New England 

 has parts of several well-defined broods which are more or less 

 important. There are now, in all, according to the latest enu- 

 meration — Marlatt — thirty broods, — seventeen seventeen- 

 year broods, with a general northern distribution, and thirteen 

 thirteen-vear broods, which occur in the southern States. 



Massachusetts has the honor, or misfortune, of possessing the 

 earliest known record — 1633 — of the occurrence of the period- 

 ical cicada. Yet even then the Indians were well acquainted 

 with this periodical visitor, using it as food, and it has probably 

 been used in like manner for centuries. Massachusetts is 



credited with four broods, and a fifth, just beyond the south- 

 western boundary, from which members have probably entered 

 the State, though none have been actually reported. These can 

 be easily located from the following table : — 



1855. (Riley, VIII.) Brood XIV. 

 Barnstable, Plymouth. (1906.) 1923. 



Occurrence. 

 PhTaouth, 1633; Manomet Point, Wareham, Onset, Sandwich to 

 Dennis, 1770 to 1906. 



This brood occurs in Massachusetts in Barnstable and Plym- 

 outh counties, its first occurrence in 1633 being the earliest 

 recorded in this country. It appeared near Plymouth in 1633, 



