CICADA SEPiEMDECIM. 



85 



.serving in cacli tlio disfciuctivo >sovontcou-yoar intorviil. In 

 Alabama the oioadaa appear in I'obruary or Maroli; in Mary- 

 land and Pennsylvania in May ; and in Massaclmsotts in tUo 

 middle of Juno. So rognlar in appearance are they, that at 

 Germantown, Pennsylvania, tliey are stated to liavo emerged 

 in great nnmbera on the 25tli May at foui' successive periods. 

 The Rev. Ezra Shaw Goodwin, of Sandwich, M^ass., writing 

 in 1832, of the cicadas, says : " I first took notice of them in 

 1821, on the 17th of June, from their noise. They appeared 

 chiefly in the forests, or in thickets of forest trees, princi- 

 pally oak. Their nearest distance from my dwelling cannot 

 bo far from a mile, yet at a still hour their music was 

 distinctly hoard there. On going to visit them, I found the 

 oak trees and bushes swarming with them in a winged state. 

 They came up ont of the gi'ound a creeping insect. Very 

 soon after they had arrived on the surface of the earth 

 tho skin, or rather the shell of the insect, burst upon the 

 back, and tho winged insect came forth, leaving the skin or 

 shell upon tho earth. Thus these skins lay in immense 

 nund)ors under the trees, entirely empty, and perfect in 

 shape. The winged insects did not, as far as I could ascer- 

 tain, oat anything ; motion and propagation appeared to bo 

 tho whole object of their existence. They continued about 

 four or five weeks, and then died." The life history of Cicada 

 Sepiemdccwi, as related by Harris, appears to be briefly 

 this : Tho female, after pairing, proceeds to make ready a 

 nest for her eggs. She selects a branch of moderate size, 

 which she clasps on both, sides with hor legs. Tlicn, with 

 her abdominal piei'cer, which consists of three parts — 

 namely, two outer saws working in conjunction with a cen- 

 tral spear-pointed borer— she malccs an incision obliiiiiely 

 into tho bark and wood in the direction of tho fibre, taking 

 caro with tho saws to detach littlo splinters of wood at 



