538 INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS. 
The most remarkable fact about this creature is that, while so 
far as we know, the other species of cicada pass but a year in 
attaining the winged state, the present one lives underground 
over sixteen, assuming at the end of seventeen years the perfect 
winged state. We have seen that the May beetle is about three 
years in obtaining the beetle state, and the wire-worms and bor- 
ing-beetle, such as the apple-borer, may be four or five years in 
the larval condition, but no other insects are as yet known, with 
this sole remarkable exception, to be so long-lived in their imma- 
ture state. 
The remarks that we have to make are simply supplementary 
to what the reader may find in Dr. Harris’ admirable account in 
his “ Treatise.” He brings out the important fact that these in- 
sects are said, in the larval state, to do much injury to apple and 
pear trees by drawing the sap from the roots, so that the tree may 
decline in health for years without any apparent cause. This 
needs to be substantiated by farther observation. As regards the 
kinds of this I may quote from a communication from William 
Kite in the Amertcan NATURALIST, vol. ii, p. 442, as confirming 
and adding somewhat to Dr. Harris’ statements: “ Seeing in the 
July number of the Narurauisr a request for twigs of oak which 
had been stung by the so-called seventeen-year locust, I take the 
liberty of sending you twigs from eleven different varieties of trees 
in which the females have deposited their eggs. I do this to show 
that the insect seems indifferent to the kind of wood made use of 
as a depository of her eggs. These were gathered July Ist, in 
about an hour’s time, on the south hills of the ‘Great Chester 
Valley,’ Chester county, Pa. No doubt the number of trees and 
bushes might be much increased. The female, in depositing her 
eggs, seems to prefer well-matured wood, rejecting the growing 
branch of this year, and using the last year’s wood and frequently 
that of the year before, as some of the twigs enclosed will show. 
An orchard which I visited was so badly ‘ stung’ that the apple 
trees will be seriously injured, and the peach trees will hardly sur- 
vive their treatment. Instinct did not seem to caution the anima 
against using improper depositories, as I found many cherry trees 
had been used by them, the gum exuding from the wounds, in that 
case sealing the eggs in beyond escape. 
“ The males have begun to die, and are found in numbers under 
. the trees; the females are yet busy with their peculiar office. The 
-~ length of wood perforated on each branch varied from one to tw? 
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