| | Transformation of the cicada. Bulletin no.14 n.s. (1898), USDA Division of Entomology. | | | The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library is in Maryland, one of the states where the 17-year cicada (Magicicada septendecim) will emerge. This phenomenon never fails to attract the interest and imagination of a broad audience. As USDA entomologist Charles Valentine Riley (1843-1895) noted in an 1885 bulletin: "…our wonder increases when we reflect that this same insect has appeared in some part or other of the United States at regular intervals of seventeen years for centuries, aye, for ages, in the past!" In this detailed 1898 review, entomologist Charles Lester Marlatt (1863-1954) mused that it was possible to fancy the cicada's shrill notes jarring on the ears of early explorers. And in 1937, listeners tuning in to the Housekeepers' chat radio broadcast were alerted to an upcoming free outdoor concert, one consisting of a shrill piping of an enormous number of insects. And the concert's theme? A love song! | | | |
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