10 THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
limbs, falls lightly to the ground, and quickly burrows out of sight, 
forming for itself a little subterranean chamber or cell over some root 
let, where it remains through winter and summer, buried from light, 
air, and sun and protected in a manner from cold and frost. It lives 
in absolute solitude, separated from its fellows, in its moist earthen 
chamber, rarely changing its position save as some accident to the 
nourishing rootlet may necessitate its seeking another. In this manner 
it passes the seventeen or thirteen years of its hypogeal existence in a 
dark cell in slow growth and preparation for a few weeks only of the 
society of its fellows and the enjoyment of the warmth and brightness 
of the sun and the fragrant air of early summer. During this brief 
period of aerial life it attends actively to the needs of continuing its 
species, is sluggish in movement, rarely taking wing, and seldom, if 
ever, takes food. For four or five weeks the male sings his song of 
love and courtship, and the female busies herself for a little longer 
period, perhaps, with the placing of the eggs which are to produce the 
subsequent generation thirteen or seventeen years later. At the close 
of its short aerial existence the Cicada falls to the ground again, per- 
haps within a few feet of the point from which it issued, to be there 
dismembered and scattered about, carpeting the surface of the ground 
with its wings and the fragments of its body. Such in brief is the life 
round of this anomalous insect. 
So far as is known, other Cicadas appear every year, usually in com- 
paratively small numbers, and this yearly recurrence has led to the 
belief that the larval existence of these species is much shorter, if not 
limited to a single year. In the absence of direct experimental proof, 
however, it may be true that all Cicadas have a long larval existence, 
and the absence of well-marked broods in other species or the complete 
breaking up or scattering of these broods, so that individuals emerge 
practically every year, have erroneously been taken to indicate a 
much shorter term of underground life. 1 
If we can not satisfactorily explain the reason for the long larval life 
of the periodical Cicada or the conditions which led to the origin of this 
peculiarity, assuming it to be abnormal, we can at least see certain 
advantages coming to the species therefrom. Among these are the 
protection from attacks of parasitic enemies, since we can hardly con- 
ceive of a parasite limited to this Cicada which could possibly extend 
its existence over an equal term of years. Its occurrence, also, in over- 
whelming numbers at almost the same moment everywhere within the 
range of the brood prevents its being very often seriously checked in 
ir rhe writer recalls that in the summer of 1885 a very large species of Cicada (C. 
marginata Say) appeared in considerable numbers among the scrubby white oaks 
bordering a stream near Manhattan, Kans., and filled the air with its very loud and 
discordant vibrations; yet, although familiar with and a frequent visitor of these 
woods in earlier and later years, no other experience with this particular species was 
had. It may be, therefore, that this species, which is more than twice the size of the 
periodical Cicada, may have an even longer life period. 
