OVIPOSITION AND IT8 EFFECT ON THE PLANT. <7 
nearly off, causing them to fall to the ground, thus furnishing their 
larva' the dead or dying wood in which they develop. 
The absurdity of the theory that the Cicada purposely cuts the limbs 
to weaken them and cause them to break off is shown by the fact that 
wherever a limb is broken, through the weakening from excessive punc- 
turing or other causes, and falls to the .around, the drying up of the 
limb invariably causes the eggs to shrivel and die. The breaking off 
of limbs, therefore, is purely accidental, and is confined, SO tar as due 
I-'i'.. 32. — Cicada scars in hard-maple twigs after seventeen years < Sop] 
to the Cicada, to the smaller terminal twigs which have been too 
thickly oviposited in. the female by 80 doing defeating her own object. 
The proportion of such broken and fallen twigs, while often great enough 
to give the tree a deadened appearance, is. small in comparison with the 
many thicker and stouter limbs which remain attached, and probably 
more than '.)<) per cent of all the eggs, and more than 99 per cent o( 
those that ultimately hat eh. are laid in twigs which never break otf. 
though often much injured. A very tew young may come from twigs 
