SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
A CHAPTER ON LOCUSTS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — T noticed in your 
^ly number “L. W. P.” essays to inform your readers ! 
* when and how” the Locust “originates.” This is an 
interf sting question, and one (as regards our Locust) that 
is now engaging the study of Naturalists — wiser and bet- 
ter heads than mine, and, 1 fear, than that of our friend 
«lso. 
My attention was called to this in.sect this spring by ray 
Kttle girl (5 years old) who pointed out to me the holes in 
Uie ground, the bugs on the fence and the perfected insect 
fluttering about, just as described. She seems to have 
been as well posted up on the Locust question as your 
eorreepondent, and, I think, perhaps better; for she ex- 
pressed no apprehensions whatever as to the safety of the 
«oming crops from that source. On the contrary, from 
ahe manner in which she handled them, she evidently 
considered them a very harmless thing. Since this 1 have 
observed, to a limited extent, the habits of this insect, and 
aoticed your request for information, but did not con- 
sider the facts in my possession of sufficient extent to ven- 
Jure an opinion — “when and how.” But as the tree has 
already been hacked, perhaps a few more licks with the 
Jiatchet may leave so much the less for some pondrous 
axe which shall come after. I will then, in as short a space 
as may be, give you my observations. If they weigh any- 
thing, throw them in ; if not, credit me with the inten- 
tion. 
The insect your correspondent terms Locust, is, in fact, 
BO Locust at all, being deficient in the masticatory appar- 
att^sivvhich is an essential characteristic of the true Locust. 
It ‘bvideiiiry is a species of the genus Cicada, and we will 
«al! it Cicada AfMYicana until some competent authority 
disputes the right. The Cicada Aviericana may be found 
in fohr different stages of development. The egg — the 
worm— the bug, and the fly — (don’t criticise my terms, 
I’m no naturalist). The eggs “may be found now imbed- 
ded in the surface w'ood of small, tender twigs. There 
they remain until spring, when they hatch, forming a 
small white worm (2d stage). This worm, under my 
observation, does not prey upon vegitation of any kind to 
an appreciable extent. When about a half an inch in 
length, they may be seen suspended from the limb by 
web which they are spinning, and by means of whft^)i'; 
they let themselves down to the ground and enter tlife'] 
«arth. They then envelope themselves in a ball of CaVth 
mingled with slime, given off from their bodies, and lie 
dormant— how long deponent saith not. The next we 
learn of (he Cicada, it perforates the ground, as described 
by “L. W. P and exhumes itself, in large numbers fre- 
quently, in the third, or bug stage, fully matured. It 
erawls (has ho wings) up on trees, stumps, or fences and 
fastens its claws or feet firmly and permanently in the 
wood. In a few hours the bug splits open on the back and 
disengages the perfected insect in the fourth or fly stage. 
Male and female having peculiar distinguishing charac- 
teristics. Both are provided with a long tubular proboscis, 
similar in appearance to that of the common house fly, 
saving the enlargement at the point. This tube is flexed 
tap under the liody, between the legs, and so close to the 
body as to escape notice, unless on close inspection. The 
male only emits the singing sound, which all have ob- 
served. This comes from an exceedingly beautiful and 
intricate harmonican-like apparatus upon the back which 
■vibrates for a length of time from the least quantity of air 
expired through it by the insect. This sound, although 
loud at first, becomes louder and still more deafening as 
the insect grows older. The female is armed behind with 
« long, firm, hard, needle shaped instrument with which 
ll perforates the young, tender limbs, only, of the tree, 
Aplitting the bark and penetrating the wood in a slanting 
<&rectioa. Into this hole the egg is deposited and there 
remains until the succeeding spring, when the same series 
of transformations again commence. The female Cicada 
may be seen boring these holes ; she first splits the bark 
and then entering the point of her needle in the wood, 
gives it a slight rotary motion gradually pressing it down- 
wards and backwards. When completed it has the same 
appearance as if done with an awl by hand. 
How long a time is occupied in the completion of these 
metamorphoses and reproduction of the perfect Ci/uida, is 
not yet known. An impression generally obtains lhati; 
occupies some years ; some say fourteen, and that these 
insects are never seen at intermediate periods. This, my 
observation contradicts. They may be seen in limited 
numbers any year. It is possible, perhaps probable, that 
the of this year may not return to us for seven or 
fourteen years to come, while that of six or thirteen years 
ago would return next year, and so on. It is also true 
that they appear some years in vastly larger numbers than- 
others. Some years we have an abundant, overflowing 
wheat crop and others scarcely make seed. The fly 
comes out of the bug, a large, plump, fat fellow, perfectly 
swiming in grease. It gradually declines in weight until 
at death it is but a mere shell, exceedingly light. This 
decline in weight keeps pace indirect inverse ratio with 
the increasing sonorous noise of their song, in conse- 
quence of the gradually enlarged capacity of their air cavi- 
ties, These facts strongly corroborate the inference which- 
observation leads to, that the fly eats nothing, but is sus- 
tained from its own store of adipoise matter gradually con- 
sumed or burned out, as the oil in the lamp. The flame 
flickers and is gone when the last drop of available oil is 
consumed. The duration of the Cicada Amcrica^ui in the 
fly stage is not exceeding two weeksi 
Baron Cuvier, in his “Animal Kingdom,” speaking of 
the genus Cicada, tells us “the Greeks devoured the pu- 
par (bug) which they called Tettigometrae, as well as the 
perfect insect (fly)- Before coupling, the males were pre- 
ferred, but afterwards the females were selected, being fill- 
ed with eggs. I have, recently conversed with a gentle- 
man, an old inhabitant of this section of country, who in- 
forms me that the Cherokee Indians were accustomed to 
eat them and considered them, in the fly plage before de- 
positing the egg, a very great ^plicacy. He has eaten 
'f%^ivlnmself, and pronouj;^ce?S them first best, surpassed 
'jby the hind^iqg of a frog, fried in batter. The 
iLnaians/jiqo|i,tj|&m' when first lioerated from the bug stage 
and puLth.em in a pan, frying them in their own fat, which 
is so abundant as to almost entirely cover the crisj;)ed in- 
sects. 
It has grown into a proverb among our farmers that 
“ihe Locust year is always a good crop year.” It proves 
so at least in the hog crop. When plenty m the woods i-hey 
furnish a valuable aliment for this animal, not surpassed 
in importance, perhaps, by the acorn crop even, which all 
our farmers prize so highly. The fotty matters of the 
Cimda need but slight transformation in the stomach of 
the hog, until stored away in the form of nice, clean lard. 
The Cicada' Americana, by puncturing the elm in 
Eastern countries, causes the sap to exude, and concret- 
ing on the bark forms the saccharine purgative substance 
called Manna, an important article in the drug mark' t. 
Tile fears expressed by your oorreapondent for the safety 
of his coi n and cotton are really quite laughable. I would 
say to him, whenever he has any apprehension ofdamage 
to his crops from the ravages of worms, bugs, flies or 
other insect, if he will, with a microscope or magnifying 
glass, examine the mouth, he can soon satisfy himself. Froni' 
an insect provided only with sucking apparatus, like the 
common housefly, there is no danger, generally speakings 
of injury to vegetation. But when you find a moutli 
filled with teeth, knives or saws, then you may look out 
►Such an examination redeems, forever, the character of 
