Report of the State Entomologist 299 



i 

 lettering as given by Dr. Fitch, and which is perfectly familiar to me 



through the experience of the visitations of 1860 and 1877, viz. 

 ''tsh—e—e—E—E—Ei—e—e—ou:' 



Mr. Clarkson was inclined, at the first, to regard this as the advance 

 guard of the host that is expected in 1894, and suggested as a possi- 

 bility that the extraordinary wet of the past year may have caused an 

 earlier development of such larvae as may have been the more directly 

 exposed to its influence. 



The Insect Reported ^t Galway, N. Y. 



By a strange coincidence, just before the discovery of the cicada at 

 Tivoli, my attention was called to an item in the Albany Evening 

 Journal to the following effect — I quote from memory, as the slip has 

 been mislaid : 



A farmer at Galway, while plowing in his field a day or two ago, 

 turned up with his plow a mass of compacted earth filled with small 

 holes. It excited his curiosity, and it was carried to his house and 

 laid aside. A couple of days afterward when happening to look at it 

 again, it was found to be swarming with seventeen-year locusts. It 

 will be remembered that this is " locust year." 



The above-named locality is in the south-western part of the county 

 of Saratoga, and lies within the limits of the territory occupied by the 

 " Hudson river brood " (the 1st as defined by Dr. Fitch, brood viii of 

 Walsh-Kiley, and brood xii of Riley), as does, also Tivoli, in Dutchess 

 county. 



The simultaneous appearance of the insect at these two localities, 

 could have but one interpretation, viz., that they belonged to the 

 brood above-mentioned, but which was not due until 1894. But in no 

 recorded instance had any portion of a brood shown itself for more 

 than one year in advance — never for two — while three would be 

 extirely at variance with our knowledge of the insect's life-history. 



Precursors of a Regular Brood. 



Addressing an inquiry to Dr. Riley, who has made special study of 

 the species, if he had knowledge of its occurrence for more than a 

 year before its appointed time, and stating what I had learned of its 

 appearance at Tivoli, the following reply was returned, under date of 

 June 16th : 



Yours of the 12th has just come. You will note from my account 

 in Bulletin No. 8 of the Division (page 8) the statement that the 

 Periodical Cicada frequently appears in small numbers, and more 

 rarely in larger numbers, a year before or a year after its proper 

 period. I know of no positive evidence (which it would, in fact, be 

 difficult to obtain) of the appearance two years in advance, though I 



