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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Six broods are known to occur in New York State, the one appear- 

 ing the present season being designated by Dr Marlatt as brood 8. 

 It is the one known as number 6 of Messrs Walsh and Riley, and 

 was confused by Dr Fitch in 1855 with a 13 year brood, which 

 occurs to the south. This species has been recorded from two coun- 

 ties in Massachusetts, it is listed from Long Island and occurs in 

 several places in northern New Jersey and in central Pennsylvania. 

 No detailed records, so far as we have been able to find, have been 

 made of the occurrence of this brood in New York State, and this 

 opportunity is taken to place on record certain facts concerning its 

 distribution, which have been ascertained during the past summer. 



This brood appears to be limited very largely to a section of 

 Suffolk county west of Riverhead and occurring, so far as we know, 

 in a very few localities in the eastern part of Queens county. The 

 list of localities compiled from various correspondents is as follows : 

 Wading River, Port Jefferson, Saint James, Farmingville, Coram, 

 on the road from Port Jefferson to Patchogue, Manorville, East- 

 port, East Moriches, Center Moriches, Commack, Brentwood, Cold 

 Spring Harbor, Laurelton, Huntington, Oyster Bay, East Norwich 

 and Syosset. There is also a record of its presence in very limited 

 numbers on Staten Island. 



There is a bare possibility that this brood also exists in the 

 Hudson river valley, though we are inclined to believe that the 

 record given below is based upon a mistaken identity in the species 

 or else that they may refer to stragglers from brood 12, due to 

 appear next in 191 1. Mr H. D. Lewis of Annandale, N. Y. who 

 resides in one of the strongholds of this latter brood, states that this 

 summer he observed several pupal cases, which he is quite confident 

 are those of the periodical cicada, though we would not be surprised 

 if he had mistaken therefor those of the harvest fly, T i b i c e n 

 t i b i c e n Linn., an insect which appears later in the season and 

 at the time when the pupal cases were observed by Mr Lewis. 



This species is such a unique form among insects that consider- 

 able interest has been aroused in regard to the possibility of its 

 eventually being exterminated with the advance of civilization. The 

 somewhat detailed records as to the abundance of this species in 

 the various localities mentioned above, may prove of some service 

 in determining this question in later years. The Brooklyn Daily 

 Times of June 29 stated that periodical cicadas were present in 

 large numbers at Wading River in the woodlands to the north of 

 the Long Island Railroad experimental farm. The same paper, 



