881.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



51 



ases, should come in contact with the insects 

 -ii is sufficient to immerse the collecting 

 lottle for a miunte (more or less) in the hot 

 i'ater, and when they are once killed by heat, 

 hey will never revive again — a pin may be 

 try safely " stuck in " just there. 



THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA. 



cly Called 



' Seventeen-Year Locust." 



Perhaps, no subject belonging to the Ento- 

 Inolngical fauna of North America, has been 

 more popularly, and more persistently mia- 

 liaimd, than the one whose history and habits 

 I propose to discuss in this paper. It is un- 

 rortunate that the term Locust was ever ap- 

 ilied to it, as a distinsuisbing title ; and it 

 fnust have been so named in utter ignorance 

 i)f the form, the habits, and the anatomical 

 structure of a true Locust. And more than 

 hat. it is nothing to our credit, that in no 

 ountry where the genus exists to which it 

 jelongs, save in the United States, is it called 

 I Loamt, either by the ignorant or the intelli- 

 rent. I have said that it is unfortunate that 

 t was named a Locust, because that name 

 mplies a widely different insect, and falsely 

 nvests it with characteristics which it does 

 lot possess, and which are impossible to it, 

 ^ lirom its organic structure. 

 j' I In 1828 I first read Captain "Riley's Nara- 

 ; five," and I well remember how we "Knights 

 of the Shopboard " criticised and even ridi- 

 I buled his book, because in illustrating a 

 Locust, he had portrayed a huge " grasshop- 

 her." We had received our impressions of a 

 i/Lornst from tiie Cicadas of 1817, and from our 

 Annual species. Capt. Riley, I believe, was a 

 New Yorker ; had been wrecked on the coast 

 bf Africa, and had been taken prisoner by 

 flic Caffrariaiis, marched inland, and saw a 

 great deal of the African Locust After suf- 

 fering many hardships, he was finally ran- 

 miird, returned home, and wrote a book, 

 .vli (li was read all over the country. 



r.ut when I subsequently saw an illustra- 

 tion of the Locusts upon which John the 

 1! iptist subsisted in the wilderness of Judea, I 

 wa- compelled to reliix my criticism of Riley, 

 lit hough my mind was still much confused on 

 the subject of Locusts and Grasshoppers ; and 

 ' the xtattcs of these insects only became clear to 

 ' Ine, after I viewed them through the medium 

 } hf scientific entomology. This may serve to 

 illustrate the false impression that may be 

 iiiade upon the ductile mind of youth by giv- 

 ing an animal a false or inappropriate common 

 (name. But it teaches more than this ; it ex- 

 j liibits the absolute necessity of designating 

 bhji'ots in natural history by scientific names, 

 I iev'en though they never should be pronounced 



I in reading a description of an animal. 



I I Some years ago I read a conspicuous para- 

 igraph in a Tennessee newspaper, in which 

 .the editor describes a visitation of the seven- 

 jteen-year Locust, during which they ate off 

 |cvery green herb, and left the country as 



I |dPSoiate as if it had been visited by a confla- 

 te:rrttion. No man could tell what insect the 

 editor aforesaid alluded to, other than what 

 [the name implied, and that was a physical 

 [impossibility. It seems that it is harder to 

 lunlearn than to learn, and hence these impos- 

 ;3ibilities are perpetuated. 

 j Let me illustrate.— For the sake of conven- 

 jience, the class of the Animal Kingdom, 

 which includes the insect world may be 

 divided into two great sub-classes, named 

 Mandibidat'i and Haustellata. or masticator- 

 ial and suctorial insects. Those belonging to 

 the first named sub-class are provided with a 

 more or less strong pair of Mandibles, corres- 

 ponding to the jaws of the liigher orders of 

 animals, except that they have a horizontal 

 instead of a vertical movement. These organs 

 are used for cutting and masticating their 

 food ; for making excavations into other sub- 

 stances : for^aggression and defence, and as 

 instruments by means of which they con- 

 struct their variously formed cells or nests. 

 The second sub-class, on the contrary, are | 



without jaws, but are provided with a Ilaus- 

 tcllum, or proboscis, by means of which tlicy 

 penetrate animal or vegetable substances, and 

 absorb their interior fluids. These, therefore, 

 can appropriate no food, except it be in a 

 liquid form. Nor have they the power to 

 bite, in the sense usually understood by that 

 term. This/act, however, is not more reassur- 

 ing than the response of the showman to the 

 lady who cautioned her son not to approach 

 too near the Anaconda, or he might " bite." 

 ' No danger, madam ! That animal never 

 bites, it swallows its victims whole.' Suc- 

 torial insects never bite, but some of them 

 possess extraordinary piercing or stinging 

 powers. 



This division between the mandibulated 

 and haustellated insects is, however, not ab- 

 solute or distinct throughout all their .stages 

 of development ; for, some entire orders of in- 

 sects during a part of their lives are either on 

 the one side or the other of that line. During 

 their larval period, or worm state, they may 

 possess a stout pair of cutting jaws, and ex- 

 traordinary mandibulatory power ; and whilst 

 in that state they may be exceedingly de- 

 structive to vegetable and other substances ; 

 whilst during the matured or imago state, 

 they may be haustellated, and capable of 

 imbibing fluids only — some of them indeed 

 harmless — gaily flitting from flower to flower, 

 and daintily sipping their tempting nectar ; 

 but others, possessing a formidable proboscis, 

 and capable of penetrating the integuments 

 of animals and plants, and voraciously appro- 

 priating their circulating fluids. These in- 

 sects, however, form an anomalous, interme- 

 diate class. 



But there is another class division which 

 separates insects by a different line, and this 

 line runs athwart that already mentioned, 

 admitting Mandibidata and Haustellata on 

 either side of it : namely, those in which the 

 transformation is complete, and those of an 

 incomplete transformation. In insects of a 

 complete transformation, the young comes 

 forth from the egg in the form of a worm, a 

 caterpiller, or a slug, possesssing no feet at 

 all, or from four to twenty-two. After it has 

 passed through the various stages of its worm 

 state it stops its feeding, and is transformed 

 to a footless and quiescent pupa or chrysalis 

 — incapable of partaking of food of any kind — 

 from which, in due time, it is transformed to 

 the imago or perfect state, its ailment and its 

 habits of life totally changed. 



But, in those of an incomplete transforma- 

 tion, the young comes from the egg a six- 

 footed animal, approximating the adult form, 

 acquiring only wings and wing covers— an 

 active creature, feeding until the end of its 

 days, if it feeds at all. Indeed, by some En- 

 tomologists these changes are regarded more 

 as transitions than transformations. The 

 form remains much the same through all its 

 periods of development. 



These latter characteristics constitute the 

 only resemblance between the true Locusts 

 and the spurious or Seventeen Year Locusts. 



The true locust is a mandibidate ; the spur- 

 ious locust is a haustellate. The true locust is 

 a voracious feeder, from early spring until 

 late autumn ; whilst the spurious locust 

 evolves and passes away within a single 

 month ; and it has never been satisfactorily 

 demonstrated, that it partakes, in its imago 

 state, of any food at all, and if it did, "it 

 could only be in a Uquid form. This much 

 by way of fixing the status of our subject. 



The insect which by common consent is 

 now usually called the sevenleni-year hcnst, 

 belongs to "the order Homoptei-a,' the family 

 Cicadidoi, and the genus Cicada, this genus be- 

 ing the type of the family. The term Homop- 

 tera is a compound of two Greek words, which 

 mean same or lil<£, and imng, because the in- 

 sects belonging to this order have four mem- 

 branous wings, which are hfimogeneous in 

 structure and form, although differing in size. 

 These wings do not overUi)) each other, but 

 are deflexed, like the double pitch of a roof. 

 Nor do they contract in longitudinal corruga- 

 tions, or folds, like a fan, as is the case with 



the underwings of the Jrue Locust. The 

 generic name Cicada is Latin, perhaps de- 

 rived from the Greek, but, like man}: other 

 generic names that are employed in Ento- 

 mology, it is arbitrary, and does not seem to 

 have any particular relation to this insect at 

 all. As authors differ in their definitions, 

 we will ])ass it by for the present. The speci- 

 fic name, sfiitfidhrim, is derived from the long 

 estabhshed and long known fact, that this in- 

 I sect requires, for its development from the 

 egg to the imago, the full term of seventeen 

 years — the most remarkable instance of insect 

 longevity on record. 



According to the " Grammar of Entomolo- 

 gy" our subject would be susceptible of the fol- 

 lowing conjugation : Sub-kingdom Anricu- 

 i.ATA ; class Insecta ; section Haustel- 

 lata; order Homopteka; family CicadiDjE ; 

 genus CiCAi>.\, and species septendccim. Ex- 

 cept that it is an articulated hexapod of incom- 

 plete metamorphosis, there is nothing that 

 allies it to the locust. The true Locusts be 

 long to the sub-class Mandibulata ; order 

 Orthopteka ; group Saltatokia ; family 

 LocusTADyR ; genus Locusta. The species 

 are numerous, but the great eastern and most 

 destructive species is the Migratoria, or 

 migrating locust. The term Orthoptera is a 

 compound of two Greek terms which mean 

 straight- wings. Asaltaterial insect is a leap- 

 ing insect, and the structure of its limbs indi- 

 cates such a habit. The true locusts deposit 

 their eggs in the ground, and when the young 

 are hatched they come above ground and feed 

 on various species of vegetation, and espe- 

 cially on cereals. 



The Cicadas, or Spurious Locusts, deposit 

 their eggs in the small branches and branch- 

 lets of trees, and when the young arc hatched 

 out, they fall to the earth, and immediately 

 commence burrowing into the ground, and 

 remain there from one to seventeen years, 

 feeding on the juices of vegetation extracted 

 from the roots ; but when quite young it is 

 difficult to ascertain what they feed oii. Some 

 say the moisture exuding from the roots of 

 fruit and forest trees. 



There are many species of Cicada— even in 

 our own country— very materially differing in 

 size and coloration ; but no country on the 

 planet, so far as is positively known, produces 

 species that require seventeen yffirs for their 

 full development. We have in Pennsylvania 

 one or two species of Cicada which "appear 

 annually, that are much larger in size than 

 the seventeen year species ; besides a species 

 that makes its appearance every thirteen 

 years ; and why is it that the one should 

 effect all its transformations within a single 

 year, and the other sjiould require thirteen or 

 seventeen years to effect a similar develop- 

 ment, is a problem in natural history that will 

 probably never be satisfactorily solved. I 

 have seen, heard, and handled the seventeen- 

 year Cicada four times in my life, and if I 

 should live until June, 188.5, and retain my 

 eyesight, and as much of my hearing as i 

 Iiossess now, I as confidently expect to see, 

 hear, and handle it again, as I expect to- 

 morrow's sun to rise. The first advent ofc 

 this insect I witnessed was in 1817, when I 

 w^s but five years old, and I recall the event 

 as vividly as if it had only occurred yesterday. 

 I can recall the consternation of my mother 

 when I entered the house with my hat filled 

 with the " terrible locusts." and that hat on 

 my head, for, at that early day, perhaps more 

 than now, they were regarded with a super- 

 stitious dread; with the ominous " W " on 

 their wings, and their peculiar stridulations, 

 which were interpreted into "P/iarwft." 

 Although T was but five years old, yet before 

 they appeared in 18H4, I had passed through 

 my school days, served five years on a farm, 

 five years as an apprentice, two years as a 

 master workman, and had gotten married. 

 We never forget the year in which we were 

 married— whether for " weal or woe "—and 

 on that occasion I could distinctly hear the 

 song of the Cicadas across the Susquehanna — 

 a physical privilege I am deprived of now. 

 When these insects appeared in 1851, I was a 



