31 



In general it may be said beetles, spiders, and other insect enemies prey 

 upon tbem incessantly, while parasitic flies, scavenger beetles, and ants 

 destroy great numbers of their dead bodies. 



Young trees upon the lands of nurserymen attract the Cicada in great 

 numbers. I do not know that any specific remedy was tried ; if so, no 

 doubt it failed, as those interested secured laborers who collected all 

 the insects they could and killed them. Ilere and in our orchards is 

 where the greatest damage was done. 



Many peculiar ideas are associated with anything that is mysterious. 

 To the uneducated mind the regular appearance of the Cicada, witli 

 which it is incapable of associating any thought of growth or of devel- 

 opment through other forms, is a great mystery. Such a person also 

 never thinks of an insect save as a destroyer of that which is necessary 

 for his welfare. It was not infrequent to hear agriculturists of fossil- 

 ized minds discussing the amount of damage the Cicadas would proba- 

 bly do to growing crops. The expressions of another class of persons 

 showed auother train of thought. " Why," say they, " these are the 

 same kind of locusts which troubled Pharaoh in Egypt. The Lord has 

 marked them. Don't you hear them say Pha-a-a-r-o-oh V s 



From the best information I can gather, I think with each septendeci- 

 mal visit these insects are becoming less numerous. The sites of towns, 

 the immense tracts of cultivated lands, together with artificial ponds 

 and other changes which man is causing, are each year lessening the 

 amount of ground suitable for their adult life. Besides what man is 

 doing to make the country unsuited for their habitation, the insects are 

 preyed upon by manj' enemies which man has brought within the region 

 of their habitation. Natural enemies, by the removal of certain bar- 

 riers, are enabled to increase. Others, by reason of changes of environ- 

 ment, are found in greater numbers within certain restricted areas; 

 others, again, by changes of habits, are made more aggressive. All in 

 all, he who can carefully look back over the past half or three quarters 

 of a century, and intelligently study the great changes which have 

 taken place in both fauna and flora, must conclude that, with but a few 

 more returns, this periodical insect will be represented by few or per- 

 haps no descendants of its now vast numbers. 



