The sun. [volume], June 22, 1919, Section 7 Magazine Section, Page 5, Image 69

About The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
THE SUN, SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 1919,
The 17 Year Locust a Marvellous Bug But Not So Black as Painted
Record Breaking Brood of Cicada Sep
tendecim Invades Twenty States, Re
viving Many Traditions of Evils Which
Are Not Borne Out by Facts Differs
Radically From Pest of Biblical Fame
Tales Handed Down by Indians and
the Pilgrim Fathers Its Food Value
O w A
MISSOURI
J
ARKANSAS
r.o Quuc unw ta Dt i-r ci niCTDiRirrrn TA P.I Iwri
S SHOWINft WHERE T LOCUSTS ARE LOCATED THIS YEAR. I
HOW Tiw LOCUSTS CLUSTER ON T LEAVE8
By JOHN McHUGH STUART.
CICADA SEPTENDECIM sev
enteen year, which he Is, and
"locust," which he- Is not is
tinging his song this year In the wood
o'.s of twenty States and the District
f Columbia.
Shrill -and high he is piping; his love
lote In the scrub oaks of the Massa
?equa Swamp on Long- Island; in Nas
bu and Suffolk, even in Kings, Queens
ind Richmond within the greater city
iMlt In Columbia, Monroe. Niagara
in4 Ontario counties, across the river
si the Jersey shires of Burlington,
Tamilen. Cumberland, Gloucester,
Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Mon
mouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem,
lomtraet and Warren, and thence as
tar fouth as Georgia and as far west
is the Mississippi, "Brood X," greatest
.' the thirty broods, has emerged once
more from the moist earth cells its
tlllions dug in 1902 for a few brief
etks of sunlight and song, of mating
lad egg laying and then shrivelled
leath.
I imii rl , an American Has;.
Of all the animate phenomena which
busy little man has observed that of
!he cicada septendecim perhaps ap
peals most to the American imagina
tion. For this lowry and marvellous
&ur is exclusively an American. He
lias had cousins in other climes and
"her times. Homer and the Greeks
Have sung of his song. But the Bib
cal plague of locusts was a plague of
fra&slioppers and so are most of the
ethers that havo been mentioned in
e ihronicle and legend of Europe
nd Asia. None of them have the
Proved finality of long yeared Incuba
tion which has been established for
'he cicada septendecim of the north
Tl States and of his brother the tri
k''.m of the South.
And this is the year of his heyday.
bout n thousand cracker barrel
frarheoras are wagging of his ru
mored taiefulness. Upon ten thou
und farms councils are held and pray-
said for the protection of the fruit
BSM,
war it not that the flivver has
replac the sidebar buggy courting
n the woodv roads In the moon of
Jnt might havo suffered as it did In
190; th. year of their last appearance.
hc liver's own sonir drowns the el-
JJdl - and a whole swarm of cicadas
Uterlng its tiny ears does not send a
i"VTr scampering Into the bright
Wits of the village streets, as did the
msKy f,,iir-vear.nlH nf 190!!
BUa Maanlned by Tradition.
Tradition
Ptlfrlm Fathers at Plymouth Rock
IKM, yet repeated tales of the great
year of 1868, have all Invested
lhl! brood In particular and the lesser
9n'" of other years in general with an
VU which they do not live up to as
aeir performances are recorded In the
"xil Precision of the United States De
jtttment Of Agriculture's Bulletin No.
T" begin with, the cicada does not
''if lie la one of tha most peaceful
and lethargic of "files." He doea not
"oat" the leaves of trees or growing"
crops. His wife, the lady cicada, does
lay eggs with a sharp chisel protrud
ing from her underbody. She lays
them In the tender twigs of trees,
preferably forest trees, and hardwoods
by choice of these. And these scars do
some times result in damage to other
wise feeble growths.
There are Instances where the
cicada attacked young or feeble fruit
trees successfully, destroying the yield
for a period of years until the scars can
heal and new fruit bearing branches
form. But for most part these are
fruit trees that are neai a forest
growth. With the disappearance of
the forests and with the Increase in
the English sparrow the cicada ia
visibly diminishing in numbers.
Otherwise there Is little that can be
done against him. Where valuable
nursery stock is exposed to the known
In advance coming of the Insects it
is possible to spray them with pyre
thrum, kerosene emulsion, mild acid
solutions, Bordeaux mixture or the
lime sulphur wash. This year, how
ever, If such steps have not already
been taken it is probably too late to
do anything, for the females are well
at their work of tgg laying and all
one can do is to wait and watch and
after the damage is done to care for
the sick tree with wax bandages, the
Judicious pruning knife, cultivation
and fertilization as the tree doctors
care for any other tree that is simi
larly suffering from a purely mechan
ical Injury.
For once hatched from tlie egg, in
about seve"n weeks, the larvae, fluffy,
leggy, hairy, white things, about the
size of a hlrdshot, climb to the edge
of the twig and with the sublime
abandon of instinct hurl themselves
off into space. They are so light that
they float gently to the ground. Im
mediately upon fhls contact with
mother earth they scramble busily
about, antllke, until they And a
crevice. Down this crevice goes the
long pair of hairy antenna?, the blunt
snout and the great fantastically
clawed front legs, proportionately aa
huge as those of the lobster. But If
they seem fantastic they work with
a marvellous suitability of design.
I'ndersrssnl Habits.
These great front claws dig aside
the earth and stones. The hairs and
antennae roll the earth into little pel
lets, which the middle legs, bent up
over the accordion pleated back also
equipped with prehensile hairs paaa
upward to be padded firm behind by
the tail and rearmoat legs. Stones
and other particles are similarly
passed back, and with almost unbe
lievable rapidity the tiny, fragile thing,
which the slightest pressure of the
Angers will crush, delves to the root
of a plant eight Inches, eighteen
inches, sometimes even many feet be
low the surface.
Once a suitable root la found the
larva fastens" to It with Its long suck
ing bill which pierces the root of .the
baric It, was once believed that this
was responsible for injury to the plant,
but the theory is discounted both on
results and by estimating that the
tiny amount of nutriment which the
larva draws In all tha seventeen years
of Its exlatence la hardly appreciable
In the Ufa of a root or plant of any
size.
Study of the underground haiblta of
the cicada has not been easy and Its
life in the dark ia not fully known.
This much la certain, however, that
during tha course of ita thirteen larval
years It goes through the normal four
moultlngs by which Its cutting sur
faces are renewed. It is probable that
for long periods It lies dormant with
out feeding and there la evidence that
beneath the earth It migrates fre
quently during this time.
In the thirteenth year it changes'
from the larval to the pupal state and
during the ensuing four years under
goes the normal two moultlngs of the
outer shell. Then, when the sixteenth
year nears its end, comes one of the
most marvellous of all manifestations
of what men call natural law. Scat
tered over half an empire, burled be
neath a thousand solla, living on a
hundred foods, while six thousand
rounds of warm sun and coldstars
end flood on this and drought on that,
frost here and scorching heat there; to
each tiny being Isolated and how
terrible that isolation of the tiny tomb
seems to man to each of these scat
tered billions comes unfailingly the
summons of one sign, the 204th moon.
Not the 203d to those who have fallen
well nor the 205th to those who fell III,
but to nil the same, the last month of
the seventeenth year, the month of
their life In' June sunshine, their flying
through the air on gauzy wings, of
sprawling amid the soft green lsavea.
their month of song, of love, of pro
creation and of death.
The 1Mb
seesSV HrunrJ.
For that each tiny grub, now fat and
strong, grown to a length of better
than an inch, turns its armed head
and forepaws upward. Slowly the dig
ging process Is reversed. The earth
pellets are this time thrust roughly
and unrolled behind, the stones are
tumbled hack, and within one fortnight
out of 600 all those myriads emerge,
whether they come from ten feet down
or ten Inches, w hether through clay or
sand, even through hard packed cin
ders. Yes, even when the point of
their emergence Is a watery hollow,
that too is provided for. For the grub
arriving well enough beforehand where
earth and water meeta turns his bur
row into a tower. Again rolling and
packing his pellets of mud he plies
tHem about his head and thrusts them
up. He builds himself a little tower
to bring him forth dry shod. He will
build it for six Inches above the flood,
solid and dry, and from Its top he will
emerge on time.
They must know time aa man knows
It. It la Impoaalble that the mere pas
sage of the events of Its senses could
predetermine these plans, for literally
billions of the plana must differ with
billions of conditions. Or is it not
easier to believe that one Great Intel
ligence directs it all?
Into Ike World Grata.
So they come. On dry ground about
the oak treea whence they fell when
this year's high school graduate was
born, they turn the earth to honey
comb. In wet ground their towers
rise like Jason'a mud borne apeara.
They thrust out into the world of
green. Straightway they seek once
more the leafy heights. Slow, heavy,
brown, they climb the rough trunks of
forest giant and smooth barked sap
ling. There the last change, the meta
morphoala from worm to fly, takes
place. A new head, gleaming white,
with bright red eyes, breaks through
the old. Strong ahouldera thfuat aside
the earthy garb of shell. Little sprout
ing wings of gossamer beat out free
and alim, feeble lega take Drat grip of
bark. Shimmering white and tender
yellow and green, the cicada la born.
Those fortunate enough tc witness
thla change can almost see the new
Insect grow. The winga extend and
harden, the color darkena. the lega
atrengthen. Anally the wlnga spread
a Cull three lnchea aometlmea and the
cicada takes flight. On the flank be
neath the wings and above the legs
a tiny bellows palpitates and the male
hursts into aoncr. Almoat as loud It
is aa the raucus rattle if the familiar
"hot weather locust" cf July. But It
has the musical note ef the cricket.
And in chorus It sounds amid the
noises of a country noon as does the
treo toad In the alienees of the country
night.
Defenseless Against Many K Be sales
Fortunately for the trees of man the 1
cicada on the wing ia not a bug of
character. He.fllea no more than he
haa to. He la utterly defenceless
against hie enemies, who are many.
He knows or shows no sign of fear.
And so It is thst the plague la not the
pest its romancera would have ua
think. The boundaries of each particu
lar swarm are well determined, and
with the ravages of Ua enemies and
the disappearance of its woods they
grow narrower from time to time
rather than wider. Despite hla hls
tory of nearly 300 yeara the cicada
Is an aborigine end cvlllsatlon ia spell -his
doom.
The egg laying proceaa of the fe
male is no less1 intircatlng than the
other phases of Its life. Her ovipositor
is an instrument of marvelloua
strength and precision. Upon Its outer
end, actuated by powerful muscles,
are two saw edged curved lancets.
Working them alternately she digs a
trench through the bark of the tree
almost a sixteenth of an Inch In depth.
Within the same knives chisel oart
two little hollows, each fitted ac
curately to the convolutions of the
egg. And when it is done two eggs
as a rule are lam in eacn note anu
the insect moves on to the next point.
It takes her about fifteen minutes
for each position.
That is the story of the seventeeen
year cycle. It is a story that haa been
gathered in painstaking bits of detail
by careful men since -Henry Olden
burg, the publisher, made this note In
Volume I., No. 8. page 137 of the Philo
sophical Transactions of the Royal So
ciety of London on January 8, 1666:
"SOME OBSERVATIONS OF
SWARMS OF STRANGE INSECTS
AND THE MISCHIEFS DONE BY
THEM. ,
"A great Observer, who hath lived
long in New England, did, upon occa
sion relate to a friend of his In London,
where he lately was, That some few
yiars since there was such a Swarm
of a certain sort of Insects in that
yHh Colony, that for the space of
2C0 Miles they poyaon'd and destroyed
sr. the Trees of the Country; there
being found innumerable little holes
in the ground out of which those in
aecta broke forth in the form of Mag
goti, which turned into Five that had
a kind of tall or ating, which they
atuck into the Tree and thereby en-
woods ring of them, and ready to deaf
the hearer; there were not any of
them heard or aeen by the KnglUh in
the Country Before thla time: But the
Indlass told them the sickness would
follow, and .so it did. very hot in the
mcnths of June, July and Augutt of
that Summer,' viz. 1663 (1664). He
says, "Toward Winter the Sickness
ceased;' and that it was 'a kinds of
pestilent Feaver." "
Accurate records of this brood in
New England are available from 1787
to 1306 and they are due to appear
again in 1923 In numbers almost un
diminished from those of the earliest
recorded years, probably due to the
fact that much of the wooded land
about "Pllmouth" has been allowed to
remain as It was.
The sickness alluded to by Moreton
was probably purely coincidental.
Likewise the sickness attributed by
the Indians to the cicada year is be
lieved to have been merely the work
upon their imaginations of the amaz
ing reappearance and rise of the
plague In the woods at Regular Inter
vale separated by a time long enough
to enable the growth of a tradition
I ... ii. t. Eaten In the goath.
A brood is mentioned by Thomas
Matthews aa present in Virginia in
1675 and the Rev. Andreas Sandel in
hie Journal tells of a brood at Radnor,
Pa., in 1715. After the usual descrip
tion and the remark that their noise
made the "cow bells inaudible In the
wood," the Rev. Sandel proceeds to
state apparently for the first time the
real reason for the locusts' damage.
He says:
'They were alao deatructlve, making
silts In the bark of trees, where they
deposited their worms, which with
ered the branches."
Then he opens another Interesting
field in the cicada discussion. He adds:
"Swine and poultry ate them; but
what was more astonishing when they
first appeared some of the people split
them open and ate them, holding them
to be of the same kind as those to
have been eaten by John the Baptist.
These locusts lasted not longer than
up to June 10, and disappeared In the
wood."
This edibility of the locust and of
the cicada aeptendecim is more than
a tradition. The negroes, and Indeed
some of the white people of the South,
frequently esteem them highly aa a
delicacy. Tire early colonists probably
called them "locusts" because they
confused them, as did the John the Bap
tist Pennsylvanlans, with the migra
tory grasshoppers of the Orient, which
have been an Item of food for time out
of mind; and the negroes probably
brought their taste for them from the
same quarter of the globe. The locust
proper of Africa and Madagascar la a
great delicacy there even In thla day
of mandatories over uncivilized peo
ples. The Rocky Mountain grasshop
per was also eaten by the American
Indiana.
Dr. Howara's Experiment.
venomed and killed It ..." But it remained for Drs. Howard and
This, according to the Bureau of I lUwy, among the first scientists to
Entymology's Bulletin, was Hrood N" collate serloualy the Information on
XIV., which appeared In 1651. It was the cicada and hla appearancea, to
Ukewlae mentioned In a work entitled teat out hla edibility in 1885. Saya
New England's Memorlall." by Nnth- Dr. Howard:
anlel Moreton, published at Cambridge I "With the aid of the doctor's
In 1669. Moreton's reference reveala (Riley'a) cook he had prepared a plain
the Indian tradition with regard to the stew, a thick milk stew and a broil.
Cicada. He writes: The cicada; were collected Juat aa they
"Speaking of the aickness which In emerged from pups- and were thrown
1633 (Moreton made a mistake of one into cold water, in which they re
ytar, as the locusts must have ap- malned overnight. They ware, cooked
peared In 1634) carried off many of the next morning and served at break -
the whites and Indians In and near to fast time. They Imparted a distinct
Pllmouth. ln. Massachusetts, he saya: and not unpleasant flavor to the stew.
'It la to be observed that the Spring i but were not at all palatable them-
bt tore, the Sickness, there was a num- selves, as they were reduced to noth
J1!F Jr3
-J ? r- 1
SHOWING- FIVE STAGES IN Thm EVOLUTION of Tfi LOCUST
ad. teaU
d In I I
ysters or
etous company of Filet, which were
like for blgneaa unto Warps or Bum-lie-Beet,
they came out of little holes
in the ground, and did eat up the
green things, and made auch a con
atant jelling nolae aa made all the
lng but bits of flabby skin. The broil
lacked substance. The most palatable
method of cooking la to fry in batter,
when they remind one of ahrimpa.
They will never prove a. delicacy."
A Mr. T. A. KeUeher, who sampled
these dishes, on the other hand, teat
fled that she found those fried
ter far preferable to either oy
shrimps.
Whatever the actual value of the
cicada for food, he appears In any one
place too seldom to make him an arti
cle of staple diet. Animals and birds, 1
however, seize with avidity upon the
pupa: as they emerge fat from the
ground. Hogs In particular will root
up ground a foot deep to And them.
They are full of a rich, creamy fat
which appeals to bogs, chifkens, dogs
and birds. This substance is actually
so full of fat that It has been success
fully used In making soap.
The mention of Dr. Riley and Dr.
Howard opens up the tale of the chart
ing of the cicada. In its way no less
interesting than the life of the Insect
Itself. Following the colonial refer
ences mentioned above the fame of
the cicada spread abroad and war,
treated by Swedish scientists at the
same -time. Most of the contributions
to knowledge with regard to the
cicada, however, were fragmentary
until 1834, when Nathaniel Potter and
Gideon B. Smith summed up the result
of many years of careful observation
and collection in a printed volume.
The IS Year Broad.
In 1845 came a very important dis
covery from Dr. D. L Phares of Wood
vlllot Miss. He ascertained that there
was a Southern race of the cicada
which appeared every thirteen years
instead of every seventeen. As to
whether or not this was a distinctive
species was a heatedly moot question
for many years. Finally it has been
settled that the two are rather differ
ent races of the same species. They
appear sometimes in the same years
and In overlapping territories, but
there has been "no evidence that the
two races cross. No broods Interme
diate In time have been developed be
tween the two.
It Is the theory, that great changes
In temperature, geologic or -climatic
conditions In past ages may have been
responsible for this change of habit
between the two races. No other dif
ferences exist, either In form or In
habit.
In the same way the seventeen vari
ous broods of the septendecim races,
the thirteen of the trldeclm are pre
sumed to have been developed through
the occasional retardation or accelera
tion of the cycle in the case of indi
viduals or particular swarms subjected
to abnormal conditions for a time. It
has been shown, for Instance, that the
tranafer of the larvae to a greenhouse
where the earth is kept constantly
warmed without seasoned variation.
will accelerate the development of the
Individuals concerned by as much as
a year.
Throughout the nearly 300 years in
which the appearance of tha locusts
has been recorded, however, no
brood has been reported which
did not during that time ap
pear at the regular intervals
of either aeventeen years In the
North or thirteen years in the 8outh.
Furthermore there seems to be trace
able a general relationship between
the sequence of the various broods and
their geographical location, all of which
Is set forth in the aerlea of graphic
charts prepared by the Department
of Agriculture and enabling them to
tell accurately at any time Just when
and where the locusts will make their
appearance.
Brood No. X of this year Is not only
the largest of any, but there seems to
be some evidence to show that it ia
the parent group of all the septen
decim. Broods II. III.. IV., V., XIII.
and XIV. are the other major broods.
The first four appeared from 1911 to
1914. In 1911 from Connecticut to
Carolina, 1912 in Iowa, 1913 In Iowa,
Kansas and Missouri and 1914 closely
packed in Ohio and West Virginia.
The present brood Is in three prin
cipal centres. One In New Jersey,
Hsnnsylvanla and Maryland, one cen
tring along the Tennessee-Carolina and
Tennessee-Georgia boundaries and the
third and largest In Ohio, Indiana and
Michigan. They scatter more thinly
through the Intervening States and
send out offshoots Into the bordering
ones, as that on Long Island.
Next year will be a light one, with
a few groups of Brood XI. in the Con
necticut Valley and in Rhode Island.
The next heavy year will be 1923
when the historic Plymouth Rock
Brood XIV. will spread from there
over almost as broad an extent as
does Brood X. of this year. New York
and Nssw Jersey will see, some clusters
of Brood XV. in 1924. and 1925 will
see' but a few tiny spots of the clcad.-r
far out beyond the Mississippi.
Thus the seventeeiiS'ear round will
run Its course with a different brood
appearing some place every year. It
is hard to tell what trees the female
cicada prefers for her egg laying,
though It seems clear that she shuns
the pine on account of Its resinous sap.
The elenda is a native of tho forest,
and not being given to migration does
not as a rule get far from wild land.
The female seems to require the woody
flbre for her egg laying, and there are
no lnstanca in wh!ch they have dam
aged plants of yearly growth, such as
corn and garden crops.
Her natural enemlea are many. In
addition to tho blrda and animals
which seize upon the newly emerged
grub with avidity there are a number
of Ales of the famMy Tachlntdse which
attack the adult, stinging and laying
their eggs In tho body of the cicada,
which has been found frequently eaten
out by the larvie of these Ales. The
eggs and tho newly hatched larvie are
eagerly sought for by all kinds of
ants, even the diminutive red ant
shouldering an egg and scuttling off
with It at a great rate.
Tho big digger wnsp is perhaps the
most spectacular enemy of the cicada.
She will seize and carry in Alght a
cicada as big again as herself and slow
the body with InAnitn pains In the
complex burrows w herein she lays her
young stock in years when the cicada
la due and when their orchards are
near woodlands where they have Aour
lrhed seventeen years before. Tho
owners of older and feeble trees can
only hope that the cicada will pe kind
and that the useful life of the tree will i
Pot be unduly shortened.
The English sparrow has perhapa
been the most potent factor in tha
elimination of the cicada. In the re
gions near cities tfbring recent brood I
emergencies the sparrows were ob. I
s rvexl to snap up the emerging pupm
With such speed that the note of tha I
adult was seldom If ever heard.
Dispelling; Evil Traditions. ' I
Tho Federal Department of Agricul
ture is doing Ita beat to dispel the evil
traditions about the cicada. One that
Is particularly striking at this time la
mentioned in a bulletin issued to farm
ers last winter warning of the coming
of the insects this year. The report
aaya ;
"Veryv long ago some superstition
attached to the dark bars of the filmy
Wlnga, These bars are always in that
shape of the letter W, but few peo
ple remember that through a period
of thirteen or seventeen years and
great signlflcance Is attached to It at i
each recurrence. Always some prophet
hits arisen to announce that tho W on
tho locust's wings means 'war.'
"Plneo this outbreak will come Just
at the conclusion of the greatest war
and when even the imagination of tha
most doleful prophet could hardly con
jure up the likelihood of another one.
some new calamity will evidently have
to be suggested this time. But no
doubt the cicada will as usual be
greeted as a harbinger of disaster and
as usual there will be reports of deatha
caused by stings of the cicada, a be
lief that has persisted in spite of posi
tive proof that the cicada has no sting,
that only by the extremest accident
could it inflict a wound either with
bill or ovipositor, and that It could not
In any caso Inject a poison.
"Any nttempt to dispel the mytha
that recur as faithfully as the chad
is likely to bo. unavailing, since thoan
who believe in them probably will cow
tinue to do so still, regardless of any
thing that may Ix- said."
A Light Run
AS the train neared Its destination
the porter appeared at the for
ward end of the parlor car.
own eggs and where her coccoons are I whisk broom in hand, ready to begin.
spun about the corpse
There Is a large variety of mite par
asites which feed upon and destroy the
eggs, and the larva1 and pupa? under
ground are also undoubtedly subject
to many enemies of the dark.
Fla-htlnar the Peat In the Soil.
Incidentally, where there Is stock
which it is worth while to protect tho
gardener or orchardman who knows
he la in cicada country might best Aght
the pest in the ground. This may be
done by putting In -a layer of tobacco
dust at a depth of six Inches, the fer
tilizing effect of which will almost pay
for its slight cost, or by the employ
ment of the usual poisons against sub
terranean Insects like the Phylloxera
and the apple root aphis, with the ex
ception that the poison will have to be
Introduced more deeply into the soil.
Blaulphid of carbon, popular in France
against the grape root nphls, will also
prove useful,
The first passenger approached didn't
want to be dusted, and so the porter
tumad to the passenger In tho end seat
on the other side of the aisle. There,
however, he met With the same lack of
response; and it was Just like that pre
cisely the whVde length of the car.
Every seat wa-s occupied, and there
ought to have been something in that
car. but the porter didn't get a rise. It
was a hot day, the ieople were tired,
and they Just didn't want to bother
about it.
The last man to step out of the car
nt the Btatlon, who had observed all
this, ventured to hand to the porter
the amount that he would have given
If he had stood up to Imj brushed, at
the same time remarking:
"Pretty light business, wasn't it?"
"Well," said the porter, "you've get
to make the best of it, take it as It
comes."
Wiaa nurserymen will not. ?ul out But it certainly was a very light run.
aw