THE NATURALIST AND COLLECTOR 
31 
plows the bark while laying-. The 
young, wingless insects sometimes 
puncture the roots of trees during the 
underground stage, but this rarely re¬ 
sults seriously, owing to their meager 
capacity for food. In former “locust 
years” farmers have reported to the 
agricultural department as to their 
various attempts to avert these destruc¬ 
tions. Lye, whitewash, sulphur, car¬ 
bolic acid, and many other chemicals 
have been spread over the trees and 
surrounding ground without avail. 
About the only remedy which proved 
successful was in the form of an ounce 
of ^preventive. 
As soon as the mud towers were 
found one farmer turned all of his hogs 
and chickens into the threatened 
ground. The cicadas were almost all 
devoured as soon as they came out. In 
one orchard where this experiment was 
tried a hog was found dead, having 
overglutted himself, while the eggs of 
several hens were poisoned This, 
however, w r as an exceptional case, as 
hundreds of the cicadas were coming- 
out of the ground at once. 
There has been considerable argu¬ 
ment among “bugologists” as to 
whether or not the cicada can sting. 
Most of the wounds commonly at¬ 
tributed to it are really made by wasps, 
which prey upon the larger insects, 
and which may often be seen holding 
fast to them in flight. The long bill 
through which the cicada sucks its 
nourishment contains no poisonous 
glands. Professor Riley, curator of in¬ 
sects in the National Museum, says that 
he has handled hnndreds of cicadas, 
and has seen children play with many 
of them, without ever a sting or a bite. 
This same entomologist has also 
eaten these insects, after the time- 
honored custom of the East, where 
“wild locusts and honey” were the 
food of the gods. He fried them in 
oil, after detaching the wings and legs. 
In Arabia the Oriental locust is pounded 
into flour for bread, while all through¬ 
out the East locust eating is a fashion¬ 
able luxury. In some places are to be 
found locust shops, where dead locusts 
are sold by measure. Professor Riley, 
however, did not And the American 
cicada particularly relishable. 
Up to recent years there was a gen¬ 
eral supposition that cicada’s eggs were 
poisonous. Many people liviug in sec¬ 
tions invaded by a periodical brood re¬ 
fused to eat fruit during that season 
because the. female frequently lays her 
eggs in apples, berries, and the like. 
It is, however, denied by good author¬ 
ities, that there is any poison whatever 
in the cicada.egg .—Inter Ocean. 
A Distinction. 
N ACCURATE defination of the 
distinctions between plants 
and animals applying to the 
lower organisms as well as to the 
higher, is yet to be supplied, Prof. 
Charles S. Minot suggests the follow¬ 
ing: “Animals are organisms which 
take part of their food in the form of 
concrete particles, which are lodged 
in the cell protoplasm by the activity 
of the protoplasm itself, plants are 
organism which obtain all their food 
in either the liquid or gaseous form by 
osmosis '(diffusion).” This, however, 
is not entirely free from objection. 
At one stagM the myxomycetes, unlike 
any other plants, take solid particles 
of food very much as do the amoeba, 
and even with this line of separation 
we may be compelled to recognize a 
'connecting link betw 7 een the two king¬ 
doms. The tapeworm in the intestine 
appears to be nournished entirely by 
absorption; but this is an exception 
induced by parasitical life, as its near 
relatives take solid food. 
