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Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 113, 5 March 1853, Page 7

Seventeen-Year Locusts. —A correspondent of that highly interesting publication Note* and Queries; writing, we suppose, from Philadelphia, in answer to a query from another correspondent, communicates the following particulars respecting a phenomenon, which has never, so far as we know, been satisfactorily accounted for:—ln fulfilment of the predictions, on the 3rd of May last year, the locusts were first observed in this city emerging from the earth; they were completely formed, and enveloped in "shells, which fit them closely. They crawled immediately up the trunks of trees, or fences, or walls, and in a short time managed to disengage themselves from their sheaths. At first they are weak, aud their wings are soft and pulpy; a few hours harden them, and they then betake themselves to the trees. They remain above the ground about six weeks, and then their bodies are found by thousands under the trees. In the mean time they have performed the work of reproduction ; the females are armed with sharp ovipositors, with which they pierce the young twigs and green branches, and there deposit their eggs. The eggs ripen in a short time, and the young larva}, in size almost infinitesimal, fall upon the earth in myriads, and commence their journey ' into the bowels of the land.' How far they go, or how they exist during the seventeen years of their entombment, is a mystery which naturalists cannot answer. Towards the end of the.seventeen years farmers meet with them when digging deep ditches, or making excavations several feet below the surface. They ;come up where they took to the earth, and in this city last year'many of them emerged in the cellars of houses which have been built since their former visit, upon ground where there had been trees. They do not prey upon the herbage whilst above ground, and it is believed that they do not eat anything. In appearance they differ materially from the common locust, and their notes are not so shrill or prolonged. There are so many thousands of them, however, that the sound of their songs unite in one great, and at times almost deafening chorus. I well remember their appearance in 1834, and the boyish curiosity with which I looked for the coming of the insects, concerning which I had heard many predictions. _ 1 never saw any of the species again until 1851, and I have no doubt that the citizens of Philadelphia who are living in 1868 will notice the re-appearance of these mysteries of entomology I about the 3rd or 4th day of May.