48 NATUliE STUDY 



The male cicada is easily distiiiguisliecl from his mate. 

 He has a pair of drums on the under side of his abdo- 

 men. With these he sounds his loud call so often heard 

 in the hot days of August. The female cicada has a long 

 sword, with which she punctures holes in twigs of trees 

 and there deposits her eggs. The larvae hatch out in 

 about six weeks, drop to the ground, and immediately 

 begin to dig their way downward, using for this purpose 

 their broad shovel-like fore legs. For more than a year 

 and a half they remain contentedly in the earth, their 

 beak piercing the roots of the tree and sucking its juices. 

 After changing to a so-called pupa state, they burrow 

 their way upwards, grasp tightly any convenient siipport, 

 such as rails of fences or trunks of trees. The skin of 

 each splits along the back, and from the opening emerges 

 the adult form, which, after spreading and drying its 

 wings, flies away, again to repeat the history of its race. 



One well-known species spends seventeen years under 

 ground, and still another, thirteen. 



The cast-off nymph skins are very common, and often 

 found by children. 



Beetles : 



The commonest beetles are ground beetles, usually 

 found in abundance under stones. They may be so kept 

 in the schoolroom. A potato plant, infested with the 

 brown and yellow striped potato beetle, often erroneously 

 called a bug, may be kept in the schoolroom, and is sure 

 to show not only the adults, but the eggs and grubs. 

 The last will bury themselves in the ground, and there 

 live a quiescent life as a pupa for the whole winter, if 

 you secure a last crop. During the summer, however, 

 the change from egg to grub, to pupa, to the adidt beetle, 



