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Corner for the Young.

Cicadæ, or Singing Flies.

Man's high position in creation is evidenced by his possession of contemplative and inquisitive faculties. While other creatures are employed continually in matters pertaining solely to their animal wants, man enjoys the privilege of surveying and investigating the universe around him. "The comprehension of creation," says Dr. Owen, "is the ordained result and reward of the right exercise of the faculties of investigation and discovery." And we may add that the comprehension of creation is, so far as it goes, a comprehension of the Creator, whom to know is perfect blessedness. In order to assist our young readers in this pleasant and profitable employment, we shall endeavor to sketch out the natural history of the Singing Fly.

In the hottest and brightest days of summer, in the groves by the margins of rivers and pools may be heard the incessant clamour of numbers of these insects. Popularly they are known as "creakers," and we till lately imagined this to be a colonial appellation; but, on turning over the pages of Dryden's Virgil, in search of a line in which allusion is made to the Cicadae, we found as follows: Georgics iii, 510, "When creaking grasshoppers on shrubs complain." The term is therefore as old as the times of Dryden, and probably older.

Cicadæ are very rare in Britain, only one species being found in the forests of Hampshire; but they are very numerous in warm climates. New Zealand possesses many species, the largest being about an inch and a half in extreme length. Their prevailing color is dark brown, but some are of a bright green, and others yellow. In general appearance they resemble a fly, but they are furnished with four wings, while the fly has but two. Like the fly, they have two large compound eyes on the sides, and three small simple eyes on the backs of their heads. Their mouths differ from those of flies in the absence of a proboscis, as a substitute for which they are furnished with a set of lancets, and their lower lips are curved at the sides, so as to form a spout. Their mouths being suctorial, they wound the bark of vegetables with their lancets, and suck the fluid that oozes from the puncture through their spout-like lips.

Their vocal apparatus is very remarkable, and is found only in the male. It consists of a pair of stretched membranes situated in a cavity in the underside of the abdomen, surrounded by brilliant modulating plates, and acted upon by powerful muscles. If a cord be affixed to the handle of a flexible kerosene tin, and be briskly contracted and relaxed, page 60 an apt illustration will be afforded of the working of the Cicada's drum. The female is furnished with a boring apparatus with which she makes oblique incisions just beneath the surface of a dead branch. Into these little caves she deposits from five to ten eggs. So industriously does she labour that she only ceases after carefully depositing in this manner from five to seven hundred eggs. The young when hatched are furnished with a proboscis and six legs, the two fore ones being very stout. Their general appearance at this stage is that of a flea. They speedily escape from their narrow nest and burrow deeply into the ground, where they are supposed to feed upon roots. After a time they assume the active pupa state which differs from the larvæ condition chiefly in the attainment of rudimental wings. In this state they remain till mid-summer, outwardly unchanging, but developing rapidly within. On a bright warm day attaching themselves to a twig or bush, they burst the pupa case in the thoracic region, and the winged and perfect insect emerges to complete its generative and final state of existence.

Cicadæ were much esteemed by the ancients. Allusions are made to them as ministers of religion in Egyptian hieroglyphics—the Athenians were in the habit of wearing golden images of them in their hair; a Greek poet styles them the nightingales of the nymphs. Aristotle says they were eaten in the pupa state, and were very palatable.

Frequently in the height of summer do we light upon a band of these insects, working their tambours with all their might, and apparently enjoying a perfect ecstacy. A poet speaks of bees chanting hymns to God. Surely these insect choruses are expressions of praise to the adorable Creator. If so, O man, take thy harp and prepare to praise Him and magnify Him for ever.

Taranaki.B. W.