Seventeen-Year “Locust”
An occurrence sufficiently rare to awaken interest, which has taken place during the past month, is the arrival of the seventeen-year cicada, commonly, though improperly, termed locust.
These insects, which since the year 1885 have spent their entire lives in the ground, have, during the past six weeks, appeared in great numbers in various localities throughout the country.
In any of these areas, if we observe the ground closely, we will see it dotted here and there with small holes. Through these the cicadas, after living underground for seventeen years, have now made their way to the surface. Here, with the shedding of the old shell, they take on a pair of wings, and after a short but noisy life of perhaps six weeks, they die. But in the meantime they have laid the eggs which insure a future brood of cicadas.
The recording of the periodical visits of this insect dates as far back as 1633, when, it is stated, that a swarm was observed by the Puritans at the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
For many years our knowledge of the cicada, because of its underground habits, has been extremely limited, but at a comparatively recent date the Biological Survey at Washington has made a series of careful investigations, resulting in a very full history of the life and habits of this curious insect.
Among other facts relating to the cicada, brought out by the research, is that, as is the case of many creatures of which we know little, the damage done by it to agriculture has been greatly overestimated.
The Boer War Ended
War in South Africa was formally brought to an end when, on May 31st, the Boer delegates at Pretoria signed the documents containing the terms of surrender.