452 
THE  CICADA  SEPTENDECIM. 
the  egg  they  fall  to  the  ground,  burrow  into  it,  seek  the  roots  of 
plants  whose  juices  they  suck  by  means  of  their  long  beak. 
They  sometimes  attack  the  roots  of  fruit  trees,  such  as  the  pear 
and  apple.  They  live  nearly  seventeen  years  in  the  larva  state, 
and  then  in  the  spring  change  to  the  pupa,  which  chiefly  differs 
from  the  larva  by  having  rudimentary  wings.  The  damage  the 
larvae  and  pupas  do,  then,  consists  in  their  sucking  the  sap  from 
the  roots  of  forest  and,  occasionally,  fruit  trees. 
Regarding  its  appearance,  Mr.  L.  B.  Case  writes  us  (June  15) 
from  Richmond,  Indiana  :  "Just  now  we  are  having  a  tremen- 
dous quantity  of  locusts  in  our  forests  and  adjoining  fields,  and 
people  are  greatly  alarmed  by  them;  some  say  they  are  Egyp- 
tian locusts,  etc.  This  morning  they  made  a  noise,  in  the  woods 
about  half  a  mile  east  of  us,  very  much  like  the  continuous 
sound  of  frogs  in  the  early  spring,  or  just  before  a  storm  at 
evening.  It  lasted  from  early  in  the  morning  until  evening." 
Mr.  V.  T.  Chambers  writes  us  that  it  is  abounding  in  the  vicinity 
of  Covington,  Kentucky,  "  in  common  with  a  large  portion  of 
the  Western  country."  He  points  out  some  variations  in  color 
from  those  described  by  Dr.  Fitch,  from  New  York,  and  states 
that  those  occurring  in  Kentucky  are  smaller  than  those  of 
which  the  measurements  are  given  by  Dr.  Fitch,  and  states  that 
"  these  differences  indicate  that  the  groups,  appearing  in  different 
parts  of  the  country  at  intervals  of  seventeen  years,  are  of  dif- 
ferent varieties."  A  careful  comparison  of  large  numbers  col- 
lected from  different  broods,  and  different  localities,  and  different 
years,  would  alone  give  the  facts  to  decide  this  interesting  point. 
Regarding  the  question  raised  by  Mr.  Chambers,  whether  the 
sting  of  this  insect  is  poisonous,  and  which  he  is  inclined  to 
believe  to  be  in  part  true,  we  might  say  that  naturalists  generally 
believe  it  to  be  harmless.  No  hemiptera  are  known  to  be 
poisonous,  that  is,  have  a  poison-gland  connected  with  the  sting 
like  that  of  the  bee,  and  careful  dissections  by  the  eminent 
French  entomologist,  Lacaze-Duthiers,  of  three  European  species 
of  Cicada,  have  not  revealed  any  poison  apparatus  at  the  base  of 
the  sting.  Another  proof  that  it  does  not  pour  poison  into  the 
wound  made  by  the  ovipositor  is,  that  the  twig  thus  pierced  and 
wounded  does  not  swell,  as  in  the  case  of  plants  wounded  by 
