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Harvest Flies or Cicadas — Part 2

In the great cicada year of 1885, Dr. Riley started an interesting series of experiments in order to determine whether the duration of the larval stage with the thirteen-year race would be prolonged by transporting the eggs north and accelerated by transporting eggs to the south. This was done on a very large scale and at several localities, the exact locations being carefully marked and recorded. No positive results have as yet been obtained; that is to say, no undoubted specimens have issued at either north or south.

The ultimate fate of this interesting species is undoubtedly extinction and its numbers are rapidly growing less. One of the comparatively few insects upon which the English sparrow feeds with avidity is the periodical cicada and many thousands of them are destroyed by sparrows each time they make their appearance and before they lay their eggs.