ALWAYS ON TIME

Evening Star, Issue 19994, 11 October 1928, Page 5

ALWAYS ON TIME

FROM-EGG-TO-ADULT INSECT The sudden appearance this summer of millions of largo black cicadas in New York, New Jersey, and surrounding territories in the eastern United States, calls attention to one of the most startling phenomena to bo found in the insect kingdom (says N. J. Burns, in the ‘ Illustrated London News’). Overnight the bushes and trees have been covered with countless brown shells, from which have emerged these handsome insects, creatures with bright red eyes, shining black bodics ? and clear, sparkling wings over an inch and ahalf in length. Known to science as Magicicada septendecim, they arc in reality bugs with sucking mouth parte, and not locusts, as often thought by early observers, who, no doubt, were influenced by their appearance overnight in such huge numbers. These remarkable insects require seventeen years to grow from egg to adult, and j always emerge exactly on time. The ( reason they require seventeen years, and not ten, twenty, or any other conventional number, is as much a mystery as their absolute adherence to seventeen. It is never sixteen or even eighteen. This year, if one happened to bo out for a walk at dusk late in may or early Juno near New York, a peculiar rustling and pattering on the ground might have aroused attention. Upon closer examination tho stroller would have seen multitudes of brownish pupae crawling out of little holes or mud streets and scrambling up the nearest tree trunks and plant stems. With its hook-like forelegs, each of these weird creatures will fasten itself securely, and, as the night hours pass, the skin will split up the hack to allow a white slug-like animal to, literally, come out of itself. As it hangs head downward, two little pads gradually expand into wings. Later it rights itself, often climbing up tho stem; whilo ; in tho meantime, the wings reach their full development. The delicate waxy-whito body, with its ruby eyes and black spots on the thorax between tho gauze-1 iko wings fringed with orange, is a sight never to bo forgotten. The white body slowly turns to black; the wings dry and become firm enough to sustain tho insect on short flights. During the few weeks, of his adult existence, tho male sings his song of courtship and love—a monotonous “ Phar-r-r-aoh, Phar-oh, oh, oh.” After mating the female busies herself inserting white eggs into tho stems of plants with her sharp ovipositor. Six weeks later the eggs hatch and tho young larva?, antlike in form and actions, fall to tho ground and quickly burrow down out of sight, each to form a little rootlet. There it will remain through frozen winters and hot summers, in absolute solitude, feeding on plant juices and slowly gaining in size to emerge again after the exact seventeen-year period. The adult cicada will spend a few weeks in tho air and sunshine, fulfil its destiny, then fall again to the ground, worn out with ceaseless activity, there to bo dismembered and scattered, the food of ants and birds. The English sparrow, introduced to the United States many years ago, and now common around New York, is one of the most active bird enemies of tho cicadas. It has also been noticed that chickens require much les,s feeding when these insects are abundant. Tho first settlers of New England recorded a visitation of “locusts” in 1(324. Exact records, which have been kept for many years by the United States Department of Agriculture, disclose tho presence of some thirty distinct broods appearing in various parts. of the country in different years. The largo ono recently present in and near New York known as Brood 2, while another small group, known as Brood G, appeared there in 1915, and will come again ! in 1932. in some of tho Southern States a number of thirteen-year broods have been discovered, and, while these insects do not differ in tho least from their seventeen-year cousins, the schedule of thirteen is just as rigidly observed. The advance j of civilisation is slowly exterminating | this interesting cicada, j which, in spite i of its numbers, does little damage to crops and other plants save the occasional injuring of young trees by its egg-laying habits. There is good ; material for speculation in tracing j back the history of this insect through ; the years of its periodic recurrences. : Wo may fancy the early colonists . listening to its shrill notes in the primeval forests, where now asphalt roads, cover tho wood paths. Indeed, . we may imagine _ the _ primitive Indian regarding it with wonder, perhaps with fear, and some- ! times, as wo road in early accounts, j roasting the soft, newly emerged | bodies for a woodland delicacy.