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PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



[July, 1855. 



lowed them ; the probability is that the grub falls to the ground, enters it, 

 and there remains for thirteen years. The proof of this is that in 1842 I 

 gathered a bundle of twigs containing the eggs — scattered the twigs in a 

 piece of woods thirty miles from the nearest Locust woods, and this year 

 they have come from the ground in the same season with those from whence 

 they were taken. I cannot say what insect transformations they have gone 

 through in this long interval. They certainly came from a great depth. Hogs 

 root for them two weeks before they appear. 



You will find a number of living specimens in a box I send you by this con- 

 veyance, also the shells, and one I picked up whose complete escape from 

 the shell was never made. 



They have not yet commenced laying their eggs, but I have directed some 

 twigs, containing eggs, to be sent me. If you wish to see some of them I 

 will, when received, forward some to you. It is supposed by some persons 

 that they migrate, and from the fact that the year 1843 was " Locust year" 

 in Virginia, I thought it probable, but now my experiment of scattering their 

 eggs in 1842 sets that at rest. They eat nothing. The males sing, the fe- 

 males lay their eggs and die. Apple and other soft wood trees die in the 

 terminal branches, making it probable that with the eggs she ejects a fluid, 

 in some degree fatal to the branch. Oak and other hard wood recover readily 

 from the wounds made. 



I could give you many fanciful stories on the subject, but prefer confining 

 myself to the facts about this curious insect. 



