373 



UNITED STATES. 



/ 



produces a whitish insect, somewhat larger than the 

 silk worm, when fresh hatched, which leaves the 

 branch where the nest was, and dropping on the 

 ground, either enters into the hole through which the 

 old locust issued, or turns the earth aside afresh, 

 and entombs itself there, to undergo the metamor-. 

 pilosis of its ancestors. 



In digging wells, cellars, &:c. in America, insects 

 of very different appearances have been discovered, 

 some twenty feet deep, which have been supposed 

 to be of this species ; others have been discovered 

 nearer the surface, of which no doubt remains but 

 that they are the grub of the locust ; and early in the 

 spring, previous to their assuming the moth state, 

 the plough-share often furnishes the blackbird, 

 which follows the ploughman, with a rich repast of 

 them ; for which, by his clamour and flutterings, he 

 endeavours to express his obligations.* 



There are two distinct species of cicada in North 

 America ; the one here described being much larger 

 than the other. The smaller species has a black 

 body with golden eyes, and remarkably yellow 

 veined wings. 



The Hessian fiy. 



It seems to be now understood, that this destruc- 

 tive little animal is a tifmla. In the entomological 

 system of Linne, this genus belonged to the difitera^ 

 or two-winged order of the class of insects. But in 

 the arrangement more recently adopted by the dis- 

 tinguished prosessor Fabricius of Keil, it is placed in 

 his eleventh order, or the antiliatam Of this genus, 



• Columbian Magazine^ December, 1786» 



