64 
THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
CICADA HUTS, OR CONES. 
Under special or peculiar circumstances, not always easily explain- 
able, the Cicada pupae construct little cones, or chimneys, of earth 
above the surface of the soil, continuing' and capping their holes, several 
weeks before the time of issuing. In addition to the names Cicada 
"huts" or "cones," these curious structures have been variously termed 
"towers," "roofs," "chimneys, 
Fig. 28. — Pupal galleries of the Cicada : a, front view ; 
e, orilice; b, section; c, pupa awaiting time of 
change; (/. pupa ready to transform (after Riley). 
"turrets," and "adobe dwellings." 
The earliest reference to them, 
if the writer mistakes not the 
significance of the language, and 
one which has hitherto been over- 
looked, is by Professor Potter. 1 
He refers to the "roofs of their 
tenements" as being "neatly 
arched and so firmly cemented 
that water is never found in 
them, although all of the sur- 
rounding grounds are overflowed 
and perfectly saturated," and, 
stating that "the locust is not 
singular in this provision," he re- 
fers, in the same connection, to 
the crayfish and other shellfish 
and some insects as building 
houses along water courses, where the soil is wet, resembling "small 
chimneys," as a provision against "inundation and drowning." 
The first definite account of the Cicada huts we owe to Mr. S. S. 
Eathvon, of Lancaster, Pa., who described them as occurring in 
localities where the drainage was imperfect. He says: 
We had a series of heavy rains here about the time of their first appearance, and 
in such places and under such circumstances the pupa- would continue their galleries 
from 4 to 6 inches above the ground, leaving an orifice of egress even with the sur- 
face. In the upper end of these chambers the pupae would be found waiting their 
approaching time of change. They would then back down below tbe level of the 
earth (as at d, tig. 28) and, issuing forth from the orifice, would attach themselves to 
the first object at hand and undergo their transformations in the usual manner. 
Professor Eiley had the accompanying figure (fig. 28) made from one 
of the chambers furnished by Mr. Eathvon. This chamber measured 
about 4 inches in length, with a diameter on the inside of five-eighths 
inch and on the outside of 1^ inches. 
As will be later noted, the exit hole at the base of the turret in this 
instance was probably abnormal, the insect issuing, as shown by later 
observers, almost invariably from a hole clawed through the summit 
of the cone. 
The next instance of the occurrence of these cones of which we have 
Kotes on the Locusta, etc., pp. 17, 18. 
J 
