70 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The adults, as demonstrated by Prof. A. L. Quaintance, feed 

 to some extent though there never seems to be any material 

 injury as a result. The Cicadas may be observed throughout 

 the day resting upon the foliage or branches and occasionally 

 flying a short distance. They seem to be very local in habit. 

 The principal injury, as is w^ell known, is caused by the female 

 in the cutting of slits for the reception of eggs. This operation 

 has been described by Mr Ira H. Lawton as follows : 



After finishing one fissure the female moved slowly forward 

 about two steps, depressed her ovipositor about 45°, and setting her 

 saws in motion, first alternately and then simultaneously, rapidly 

 penetrated the bark, but the ovipositor was soon elevated to 25°. 

 After penetrating to the full length of her ovipositor and filling that 

 chamber with eggs, she swung a little to one side and through the 

 same hole in the bark excavated the opposite chamber and filled it 

 with eggs. The making of each chamber occupied a little over 

 twenty minutes or a total of forty-five minutes for the whole. 

 During the cutting of a fissure, the saws made about eighty strokes 

 to the minute, and after making four, the female would rest for a 

 time. The heads of the Cicadas were directed, in the main, from 

 the tree but not invariably so, as some worked with their heads 

 toward the trunk of the tree. 



A female with the ovipositor partly inserted is shown at plate 

 21, figure 6. 



Oviposition. The female exercises very little choice in select- 

 ing twigs in which to deposit eggs. Mr William T. Davis of 

 Staten Island has recorded oviposition in between seventy and 

 eighty kinds of trees, bushes and herbaceous plants. The limbs 

 of oaks and hickories are favorites, though on Staten Island the 

 black birch and sweet gum were frequently severely injured. 

 Oviposition in the twigs of pine and the smooth sumac, Rhus 

 glabra, appears to be comparatively rare. Poison ivy is not 

 exempt. 



One female may make as many as fifty of these slits (plate 

 22) in a twig, and after depositing her complement, which is 

 said to be four hundred to five hundred, drops to the earth 

 and dies. Oviposition commenced at Nyack in 191 1, according 

 to Mr Lawton, June 22d, the eggs beginning to hatch within 

 five weeks, namely, the latter part of July. Eggs taken in the 

 vicinity of Albany hatched in the office August 5th. The young 

 Cicadas are slender, grublike creatures about one-tenth of an 

 inch long. They are as lively as ants, and after running about 

 on the tree for a short time, drop to the ground and bury them- 



