Cicada

“ This hatched in two or three days, and began to feed on the Cicada. In a week it had eaten the Cicada and grown to be a big fat grub. Then it spun a cocoon, and made itself into a bundle-baby, resting all autumn and all winter in that dark den.
But when the spring came with its glorious wakening up, great changes came over the bundle-baby of the Digger. It threw off the cocoon and its outer skin, and came forth from the gloom into the sunshine, a big strong Digger Wasp with a sting of its own, and a deadly feud with all screaming Cicadas. ”

“ By this time every voice of bird or mammal is hushed. Only in the trees is heard at intervals the whir of the cicada. The leaves, so soft and fresh in the early morn, now become lax and drooping. The flowers shut their petals. The natives, returning to their huts, fall asleep in their hammocks, or, seated on mats in the shade appear too languid even to talk. White clouds now appear in the east, and gather into cumuli, with an increasing blackness along their lower portions. The whole eastern horizon becomes rapidly black, the dark hue spreading upwards. Even the sun is at length obscured. ”

“ As the Chinese substituted jade for pearls, so did they substitute the cicada for the dung-beetle.
The cicada belongs to that class of insect which feeds on the juices of plants. It is large and broad with brightly-coloured wings. The male has on each side of the body a sort of drum which enables it to make that chirping noise called “the song of the cicada”, referred to by the ancient classical poets. When the female lays her eggs she bores a hole in a tree and deposits them in it. Wingless larvæ are hatched, and they bore their way into the ground to feed on the juices of roots. ”

“ But Professor C. V. Riley, our government entomologist, has unearthed the entire mystery, and eye-witnessed the fate of our cicada, and I am thus enabled to picture the rest of the tragedy. What now follows is very similar to what I described in a previous paper concerning the mud-wasp nest packed with its dead spiders. Our cicada is not dead—more's the pity. The thrust of the sting has only paralyzed the insect, in order that the young of the hornet may be provided with living food. ”

“ It is nothing more than what all insects do. But the cicada is notorious because it does the thing in such a spectacular way, almost courting publicity where most insects are shy and retiring. As a conse- quence the cicada is famous; the others are known only to prying entomologists. Let us suppose now that our crawling nymph has reached a place that suits it, say on the trunk of a tree, or better still on a piece of branch provided for it and taken into a lighted room where its doings can be more clearly observed. ”

“ Every tiller of the soil is familiar with the grub of this insect, which he turns over with his spade whenever he banks up the olive-trees at the approach of cold weather. A thousand times he has seen the grub leave the ground through a round hole of its own making, fasten itself to a twig, split its own back, take off its skin, and turn into a Cicada. ”

“ My mate wants me.” And a flying leap carried him quite away.
“There, we are rid of the old grandfather,” said the cicada, “and now what can I do for you?”
“Tell me your real name if it is not locust,” answered Ruth.
“It certainly is not locust. I’ve been called a harvest fly, though I am not a fly either. I’m a cicada, and nothing else, and I belong to the order of bugs.” ”

“ Instead of shrouding the earth in snow during our period of plant-rest, as she does in more rigorous climes, Nature gently spreads over hill and valley a soft mantle of brown.
When the first shrill notes of the cicada are heard in late spring, we awake to a sudden realization that summer is at hand, and, looking about us, we see that the flowers have nearly all vanished; hill and valley no longer glow with great masses of color; only a few straggling species of the early summer remain ”

“ In the patio of the comfortable little hotel we heard the cicadas; but I did not hear the extraordinary screaming whistle of the locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the gardens of the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I have listened, except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree hyrax in East Africa; and like the East African mammal this South American insect has a voice, or rather utters a sound which, so far as it resembles any other animal sound, at the beginning remotely suggests batrachian affinities. ”

“ INSECTS
usually becomes restless, leaves the empty skin (I9) , and takes up a new position several inches away At this stage the cicada is strangely beautiful. Its creamy-yellow paleness, intensified by the great black patches just behind the head and relieved by the pearly flesh tint of the mesothoracic shield, its shining red eyes, and the milky, semitransparent wings with deep chrome on their bases make a unique impression on the mind. There is a look of unreality about the thing, which out of doors (Plate 6) becomes a ghostlike vision against the night. ”

“ The life of the periodical cicada stirs our imagination as that of no other insect does. For years we do not see the creatures, and then a springtime comes when countless thousands of them issue from the earth, undergo their transformation, and swarm into the trees. Now, for several weeks, the very air seems swayed with the mo- notonous rhythm of their song, while the business of ma- ring and egg-laying goes rapidly on; and soon the twigs of trees and shrubs are everywhere scarred with slits and punctures where the eggs have been inserted. ”

“ The Scarites darts out of his pit, runs forward, seizes the Cicada and drags her backwards. The struggle is brief, thanks to the trap of the entrance, which yawns like a funnel to receive even a bulky quarry and contracts into a crumbling precipice that paralyses all resistance. The slope is fatal: who crosses the brink can no longer escape the murderer.
Head first, the Cicada dives into the abyss, down which the spoiler drags her by successive jerks. She is drawn into the low-ceilinged tunnel. ”

“ Glutted with light and heat, they have indulged in symphonies all the livelong day. The advent of the night means rest for them, but a rest frequently disturbed. In the dense branches of the plane-trees a sudden sound rings out like a cry of anguish, strident and short. It is the desperate wail of the Cicada, surprised in his quietude by the Green Grasshopper, that ardent nocturnal huntress, who springs upon him, grips him in the side, opens and ransacks his abdomen. ”

“ She cuts up the rich dish, dissects it, carves it and reduces it to morsels which go to swell her hoard of provisions. It is not unusual to see a dying Cicada, with his wing still quivering in the dust, drawn and quartered by a gang of knackers. ”

“ The fourth note of the larger form of the cicada is uttered by males when they appear to be surprised or frightened'. On such occasions, as the insect darts away, he makes a loud, rough sound, and the same note is often uttered when a male is picked up or otherwise handled. "l'he notes of the small form of the seventeen-year race of the cicada have an entirely different character from those of his larger relative. ”

“ Even when the periodical cicada is not confused with some other insect, its appearance in overwhelming numbers arouses fear that crops will be destroyed. But the cicada does not feed on foliage of any kind. If the adults feed at all, they do so by inserting their beaks in bark and sucking juice. Although the adults cause no feeding damage, the adult females make injurious punctures in twigs and limbs of trees and bushes with their egg-laying apparatus. ”

“ What a strange wonder-working medicine is this which the hornet carries in its laboratory! In the guise of death it yet prolongs life indefinitely. The ordinary existence of the cicada, for instance, is but a few weeks at most, and yet it is claimed by Mr. Riley that if for any reason the egg of the wasp should fail to hatch, the paralyzed cicada will remain in its condition of suspended animation for a year, and presumably longer. ”

“ Ignorant or clever, scholars are scholars the world over. This yellow man with the horn spectacles saw what the boy was playing with and realized that no real cicada would last ten minutes at such a game; also, that this cicada seemed to be petrified or carved from stone. He called to the boy, and the cicada changed hands for a matter of two coppers—cash.
Examining his purchase, the scholar found that the cicada really was carved from stone—a stone resembling jade, but like no jade that he had ever seen. On the belly were cut two characters of some ancient script which he could not read. ”

“ Doctor Marlatt describes six immature stages of the periodical cicada between the egg and the adult. The young cicada that first enters the ground is a minute, soft-bodied, pale-skinned creature about a twelfth of an inch in length (Fig. 126) . The body is cylindrical and is supported on two pairs of legs, the front legs being the digging organs; the somewhat elongate head bears a pair of small dark eyes and two slender, jointed antennae. At no stage has the cicada _jaws like those of the grass- hopper ”

“ At any rate it is impossible to suppose that even a cicada can enjoy the ear-splitting clamour in which its neighbours indulge, and which now keeps up with us all the way as we traverse the San Pedro Valley, and mounting from plateau to plateau—some of them fine grass land, others arid cactus beds—reach another "Great Divide," and then descend across an immense, desolate prairie, brightened here and there with beautiful patches of flowers, into the San Simon Valley. ”

“ It is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, and particularly of Italy and Greece: appearing in the latter months of summer, and continuing its shrill chirping during the greatest part of the day: generally sitting among the leaves of trees. Notwithstanding the romantic attestations in honour of the cicada, it is certain that modern ears are offended rather than pleased with its voice; which is so very strong and stridulous, that it fatigues by its incessant repetition; and a single cicada, hung up in a cage, has been found to drown the voice of a whole company. ”

“ Sphecius speciosus is a member of the Stizinae, a group recognised by some as a distinct sub-family. It makes use, in North America, of Insects of the genus Cicada as food for its young. Burrows in the ground are made by the parent Insect; the egg is deposited on the Cicada, and the duration of the feeding-time of the larva is believed to be not more than a week; the pupa is contained in a silken cocoon, with which much earth is incorporated. Riley states that dry earth is essential to the well-being of this Insect, as the Cicada become mouldy if the earth is at all damp. ”

“ Coryell's letter that the seventeen-year cicada is only an imitation locust, I shall give you a portrait of another member of the family who is, perhaps, more nearly related to the insect he is named after. At all events, he is certainly more like a grasshopper than is the seventeen-year cicada. The grasshopper that lives in this part of the world is a fine fellow to hop, as you know, but he always lights on his feet, and looks as composed and as much at his ease as if he had walked to the spot in the most dignified manner. ”

“ Our cicada belongs to quite another family of insects. Instead of jaws for biting, as our fiddling "grasshopper," the cicada has only a long "beak for sucking," and this feature alone connects him with the tribe of "bugs." Moreover, his methods of music-making are very different from those of the "grasshopper" tribe. It is the male only that makes the music, and his instrument is a drum. ”

“ But the habitats of the two forms are widely separated, and it is unquestionable that, in the case of the cicada, it is the nymph that has made the innovation in adopting an underground lire, for with most of the rela- tives of the cicada the young live practically the same lire as the adults. Animals live for business, not for pleasure; and all their instincts and their useful structures are developed for practical purposes. Therefore, where the young and the adult of any species differ in form or structure, we may be sure that each is modified for some particular purpose of its own. ”

“ Pruning of weakened twigs is recommended for wood injured by the cicada. If treehoppers are a pest, clean cultivation will help. Cover crops of cowpeas or clovers should not be planted. In preliminary tests two or three applications of tetraethyl pyrophosphate (20 percent) , 3/4 pint per 100 gallons of water, have given promising results in controlling the periodical cicada. The first application should be made after the cicadas appear and the others as needed to prevent damage. ”

“ In the cicada, as I have shown, the eggs are inserted in the bark, but the young, hatching about six weeks later, immediately forsake the parent tree and enter the ground. But the young of our bittersweet membracis are not thus fickle, the entire life of the insect being spent on the plant. Moreover, its eggs are laid in late summer, and do not hatch until the following [Pg 101] spring. What, then, is this canopy of the tree-hopper but the provision of a thoughtful mother, a pavilion about her offspring as a shelter through the winter storms? ”

“ The male cicada alone exerts this powerful note, the female being entirely mute. That a sound so piercing should proceed from so small a body may well excite our astonishment; and the curious apparatus, by which it is produced, has justly claimed the attention of the most celebrated investigators. ”