Brood X

On the well-cared-for grounds of the British Embassy in Washington one day last week a gardener noticed a great number of odd insects among the flowers and shrubs. He had never seen any creatures like these in England. They were a dingy brownish black, with spiny forelegs and large, staring eyes. Their legs were orange and their wings, which spread three inches when open, bore dark markings resembling the letter "W." The gardener took news of his discovery to plump, grey-haired Lady Lindsay, wife of moose-tall Ambassador Sir Ronald Lindsay. Lady Lindsay suggested telephoning to the Department of Agriculture. One of the Department's entomologists told the worried gardener that the insects were part of a huge and famed brood--Brood X--of periodical cicadas known scientifically as Tibicina septendecim and popularly as "17-year-locusts." The entomologist said that the insects would do little or no harm to flowers and shrubs, would make a fearful racket later on when they began to mate. Meanwhile there was nothing to do. If the gardener insisted on keeping the invaders away from his flowers, he could spread mosquito netting over the beds. Periodical cicadas are not locusts at all. When pious New England pioneers found them in enormous numbers, they thought of the locust plagues of the Bible, called the cicadas "locusts." The 17-year cicada is the longest lived of any known insect. One or more broods appear in the eastern U. S. every year. Brood IX, which appeared on schedule last year in its usual region, has a small range--parts of West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. This year's Brood X, hatching from eggs laid in 1919, is among the largest. It ranges from Michigan to Georgia, from eastern Missouri to Long Island. Tibicina septendecim is a toothless insect, does not eat plants but simply sucks at them. It makes no attempt to escape from sparrows, its greatest enemy. The female damages orchards and vineyards by using her sawtooth appendage to carve grooves in which to lay her eggs. When the larvae hatch from the eggs, they fall to the ground, dig in, attach themselves to a root at which they suck for 17 years. When the proper time arrives, they come out at dusk, climb a tree. In order to get out of the old shell in which it passed its infancy, the insect takes a firm toehold on the bark, arches its back. The shell splits and the cicada slowly works out of it. At this stage the insect is whitish, has red eyes. The frail, crumpled wings spread out and grow strong with incredible rapidity. By morning the cicadas have grown dark, are ready to fly. For four or five weeks they frolic in the sunshine. After mating and egg-laying they die. The males have two drums of cartilage beneath their wings and muscles which vibrate them rapidly. With this apparatus they set up an ear-splitting racket. As a mating call, this is wasted effort, because the females seem to have no auditory organ whatever. It is possible, however, that as snakes perceive the vibrations of sound with their tongues, the female cicada may feel the shrill song of the male with her antennae or some other organ. To clarify this situation a program of re-search was last week reported to be on foot at the University of Maryland. The call of the male will be transmitted by microphone to a loudspeaker in another room. The female will be placed in front of the loudspeaker, while the researchers observe closely to see whether she shows any sign of interest.

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