Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/244

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N S EC'I'S

the eggs into the twigs of trees and bushes. Ordinarily the ovipositor is kept in a sheath beneath the rear halfof the abdomen, but when in use it can be turned downward and forward by a hinge at its base (Plate 7). The oviposi- tor consists of two

lateral blades, and a ? guide-rail ai»ove. The blades excavate a cav- ? itv in the wood in- te; which the eggs j are passed through the space between the blades. I t was formcrly sup- posed that the period- ical cicada takes no fo??d during the brief Flç. 119. blales of the large and small form of the periodical cicada (natural size) rime of its adult lire, but ?e know from the observations of .?lr. W. T. l)avis, l)r. A. !...Quaintance, and others and from a study of the stomach contents made o by the writer that the insects do feed abundantly by st'?cking the sap from the trees on which they lire. The cicada, being a near relative of the aphids, has ?? / ?? also, as we have already noted, a pierci?{? and suck- in? belîk by which ? it ? the punctures plant tissues and r,? draws the sap up toitsmouth. ['n- like the other sucking insects v,ç. ,=o. ? ,?ale of ,?e p?r?,,??«a! «i?aaa ,?i,? ,?e wings spread, showing the ribbed sound-producing that infest plants, organs, or tympana (Tm),on thebaseofthe abdomen

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