NPPF - Canto Two Notes -- Et Cicada

[himself]

Where I grew up in Oklahoma the cast skins were also brown.  We did, in 
fact, call these insects "locusts" -- which I now gather is incorrect.  It 
was a local sport -- rather cruel in retrospect (if one can be cruel to an 
insect) -- to catch a cicada and lasso a long piece of thread around its 
thick head, and to fly it buzzing furiously and electrically at the end of 
the thread in wild, sweeping circles.

It seems to me, based on the information contained at Jasper's links below, 
that the cicadae which I heard every summer growing up must have been 
"annual" cicada rather than the "periodicals" he mentions, since we heard 
them each year without fail.  The great waves of thrumming sound they make 
is very beautiful and distinctive.  James Agee, in an elegant passage in "A 
Death in the Family", says "it is habitual to summer nights, and is of the 
great order of noises, like the noises of the sea and the blood." 

These stentorian critters are also called dogday locust or harvestflies: 

http://troyb.com/photo/gallery/017-01-DogdayHarvestfly.htm 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org 
> [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of Jasper Fidget
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 11:00 AM
> To: 'Pynchon List'
> Subject: RE: NPPF - Canto Two Notes (1) 
> 
> 
> > From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org 
> [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On 
> > Behalf Of David Morris
> > 
> > 238:  Empty emerald case, squat and frog-eyed, / Hugging 
> the trunk 
> > Does anyone have a clue what this is?
> >  
> 
> Maybe Kinbote is correct that it's a cicada's cast skin (exuvia): 
> 
http://www.hortnet.co.nz/key/keys/bugkey2a/cast1.htm 

These tend to be brown where I live, but the ones in the photos on this site 
could be called emerald I suppose (probably depends on the species). 
Incidentally, juvenile cicadas are called "nymphs", and burrow underground 
for usually 13 or 17 years (depends on species, but always tends to be a 
primary number for some reason), then lives only 2-6 weeks as an adult. 

Also, the male cicada apparently makes the loudest sound of all insects. 

Also, the letters P or W can often be made out on a cicada's wings, and 
there's some folklore that maintains a P indicates peace, while a W 
indicates war. 

Also, cicadas are not locusts, as they are sometimes confused. 

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Periodical/Index.ht
ml 

http://www.dancentury.com/cicada/faq.html 

Jasper