31 
In general it may be said beetles, spiders, and other insect enemies prey 
upon them incessantly, while parasitic flies, scavenger beetles, and ants 
destroy great numbers of their dead bodies. 
Young trees upon the lands of nurserymen attract the Cicada in great 
numbers. I do not know that any specific remedy was tried ; if so, no 
doubt it failed, as those interested secured laborers who collected all 
the insects they could and killed them. Here and in our orchards is 
where the greatest damage was done. 
Many peculiar ideas are associated with anything that is mysterious. 
To the uneducated mind the regular appearance of the Cicada, with 
which it is incapable of associating any thought of growth or of devel- 
opment through other forms, is a great mystery. Such a person also 
never thinks of an insect save as a destroyer of that which is necessary 
for his welfare. It was not infrequent to hear agriculturists of fossil- 
ized minds discussing the amount of damage the Cicadas would proba- 
bly do to growiug crops. The expressions of another class of persons 
showed another train of thought. u Why,” say they, “ these are the 
same kind of locusts which troubled Pharaoh in Egypt. The Lord has 
marked them. Don’t you hear them say Plia-a-a r-o-oli V 7 
From the best information I can gather, I think with each septendeci- 
mal visit these insects are becoming less numerous. The sites of towns, 
the immense tracts of cultivated lands, together with artificial ponds 
and other changes which man is causing, are each year lessening the 
amount of ground suitable for their adult life. Besides what man is 
doing to make the country unsuited for their habitation, the insects are 
preyed upon by many enemies which man has brought within the region 
of their habitation. Natural enemies, by the removal of certain bar- 
riers, are enabled to increase. Others, by reason of changes of environ- 
ment, are found in greater numbers within certain restricted areas 5 
others, again, by changes of habits, are made more aggressive. All in 
all, he who can carefully look back over the past half or three quarters 
of a century, and intelligently study the great changes which have 
taken place in both fauna and flora, must conclude that, with but a few 
more returns, this periodical insect will be represented by few or per- 
haps no descendants of its now vast numbers. 
