Chapter 4 Insect Cicada

1. Cicadas and ants Most of us are not very familiar with the singing of cicadas, because they live in places where foreign olive trees grow, but anyone who has read Lafonton’s fables probably remembers the cicada Have been ridiculed by ants.Although La Fontaine is not the first person to talk about this story. The story says: Throughout the summer, the cicadas don't do anything but sing all day long, while the ants are busy storing food.When winter came, the cicada was driven by hunger, so he had to go to its neighbors to borrow some food.As a result he was treated poorly. The proud ant asked: "Why don't you collect some food in summer?" The cicada replied: "I am too busy singing in summer."

"Do you sing?" the ant replied bluntly, "Okay, then you can dance now", and then it turned and ignored it. But the insects in this fable are not necessarily cicadas. Lafonton may be thinking of katydids, and the English often translate katydids as cicadas. Even in our village, no farmer would imagine that there will be cicadas in winter without common sense.Almost everyone who cultivates the land is familiar with the grubs of this insect, which they can dig up at any time when the weather is getting colder when they pile up the soil from the roots of olive trees.At least ten times, he has seen this grub crawl out of its burrow in the earth, hold a branch tightly, split its back, shed its skin, and become a cicada.

This fable is a lie, and the cicada is not a beggar, although it needs a lot of attention from its neighbors.Every summer, it came to sing outside my door in groups. In the green shade of two tall shrubs, from sunrise to sunset, the rude music made me dizzy.This deafening ensemble, this endless clamor, makes it impossible to think of any thoughts. Sometimes, cicadas and ants do deal with each other, but they are just the opposite of what was said in the previous fable.Cicadas do not depend on others for their lives.It never went to the ant's door to beg for food, but the ant was driven by hunger to beg and beg the singer.Didn't I say sorry?This sentence is not exact, it is brazen to rob.

In July, when the insects here suffer from thirst and run around in despair on the withered flowers in search of drinks, the cicadas are still very comfortable and do not feel pain.With its protruding mouth—a delicate straw, sharp as an awl, housed in its chest—it pierces the barrel of inexhaustible drinking.It sits on the branch of the tree and sings non-stop. As long as it drills through the smooth bark, there is plenty of juice in it, and the straw is inserted into the hole of the barrel, and it can drink to its full. If we wait a little longer, we may see its unexpected annoyance.Because there are many thirsty insects nearby, they immediately found the juice flowing out of the cicada's well and ran to lick it.Most of these insects are wasps, flies, maggot sloughs, rose bugs, etc., but the most are ants.

The small ones wanted to get to the well, so they sneaked under the cicadas, but the master lifted his body generously to let them pass.The big insect, after grabbing a bite, ran away quickly and walked to the neighboring branch. When it turned around again, it became more courageous than before, and it suddenly became a robber, trying to drive the cicada from the well. Walk. The worst offenders are ants.I have seen them bite the tip of a cicada's leg, grab its wings, and climb up its back. Once, a fierce and strong man even grabbed the cicada's straw in front of me, trying to put it on the ground. Pull off.

In the end, the troubles became more and more serious, and the singer had no choice but to abandon the well he had made and run away quietly.So the purpose of the ants was achieved and they took possession of the well.But the well also dries quickly, and the juice is eaten up in no time.So it looked for another opportunity to rob other wells in order to drink heavily for the second time. You see, the real truth, isn't it the opposite of that fable?Ants are tenacious beggars, but hard-working producers are cicadas! 2. The crypt of the cicada I have a good environment to study the habits of the cicada, because I live with it.In early July it took possession of the tree near my house.I am the master of the house, and it is the supreme ruler outside the door, but its rule is always uncomfortable no matter what.

Cicadas were first discovered during the summer solstice.On the road with many pedestrians and the sun shining on it, there are many round holes, which are level with the ground and about the size of a human finger.In these holes, cicada grubs emerge from the ground and become full cicadas on the ground.They like very dry and sunny places.For the grub has a powerful instrument for piercing baked earth and sand. When I inspect their storerooms, I dig with a hand axe. The most noticeable thing is that there is no dust on the four sides of this round hole with a diameter of about one inch, and there is no soil accumulated outside.Most burrowers, such as golden dungs, always have a mound outside their nest.Cicadas are different because of the way they work.The work of the golden dung begins at the mouth of the cave, so the excavated waste is deposited on the ground; but the cicada grub comes from the ground.The last job is to open up the doorway, because there was no door at the beginning, so it didn't accumulate dust at the doorway.

Most of the cicada's tunnels are fifteen to sixteen inches deep, unobstructed, wide at the bottom, but completely closed at the bottom.Where did the soil go when the tunnel was built?Why don't the walls crack down?Everyone thinks that cicadas use their clawed legs to climb up and down, but this will collapse the soil and block their houses. In fact, it behaves almost like a miner or a railway engineer.Miners used pillars to support tunnels, and railway engineers used brick walls to make tunnels strong.The cicada, as clever as they are, plasters the walls of the tunnel with cement.This slime is hidden in its body, and of it it is used for plaster, and its crypts are often built upon the sap-bearing roots from which it derives its sap.

It is important for him to be able to climb up and down his burrow easily, because when he climbs out into the sun, he must know what the weather is like outside.So it has to work for several weeks, or even a month, to make a solid wall suitable for it to crawl up and down.At the top of the tunnel, it left a layer of soil as thick as a finger, to protect and resist changes in the outside air until the last moment.As long as there is some news of good weather, it climbs up and uses the thin cover on the top to gauge the state of the weather. If it expected rain or a storm outside--a most important thing when delicate grubs were shedding their skin--it cautiously slid down the tunnel.But if the weather seemed warm, it smashed the ceiling with its claws and crawled to the ground.

In his swollen body, there is a juice, which can be used to avoid the dust in the hole.When it digs, it pours its sap over the earth, making it mud.So the walls are softer.The grub presses up again with its fat body, and squeezes the mud into the cracks in the dry soil.Therefore, when it is found at the apical exit, it often has many wet spots on its body. The cicada grub, when first appearing on the ground, often prowls the neighborhood, looking for a suitable spot to shed its skin—a small bush, a bush of thyme, a blade of weed, or a branch of a shrub—and when it finds it, It climbed up and held it tightly with the claws of its front feet, without moving at all.

Then its outer skin began to split from its back, revealing the pale green cicadas inside.At that time, the head came out first, followed by the straw and front legs, and finally the hind legs and wings.At this time, except for the last tip of the body, the body has completely sloughed out. Then, it performs a strange gymnastics, the body soars in the air, only a little fixed on the old skin, turns the body so that the head is down, and the patterned wings are straightened out and stretched as far as possible.So with an almost invisible movement, he tried his best to turn his body up, and hooked his front claws on its hollow skin. With this movement, the tip of the body was pulled out of the sheath. The whole process took about half an hour. . For a short period of time, the newly released cicada is not very strong.Its supple body must be well bathed in light and air, before it acquires strength and color.It hangs on the shed shell with only its front paws, swinging in the breeze, still very fragile and green.Until the brown color appears, it is the same as ordinary cicadas.Suppose it gets the branch at nine o'clock in the morning, drops its skin and flies away at about half past twelve.The shell sometimes hangs on the branches for a month or two. 3. The music of cicadas Cicadas like to sing very much.It holds a cymbal-like instrument in the cavity behind its wings.Not satisfied yet, a kind of castanet was placed on the chest to increase the intensity of the sound.Indeed, there is a species of cicada that has sacrificed a lot to satisfy its musical taste.Because of this gigantic castanet, there is no place for the vital organs to be placed, and they have to be squeezed into the smallest corner of the body.Of course, to devote yourself to music enthusiastically, you have to shrink the internal organs to accommodate the instruments. But unfortunately, the music it likes so much does not interest others at all.Even I have not discovered the purpose of its singing.The usual conjecture is that it is calling out to its companions, but it is evident that this opinion is wrong. The cicadas have lived side by side with me for fifteen years. Every summer for about two months, they are never far from my sight, and their songs are never far from my ears.I usually see them lined up on the soft branches of Xiaoxuan, and the singer and his mate sit side by side.The straws were inserted into the bark, and they drank without moving. As the sun set, they walked slowly and steadily along the branches, looking for a warm place.Whether drinking or moving, they never stop singing. So it doesn't look like they're yelling at their mates, and if you think about it, if your mates were in front of you, you probably wouldn't spend a whole month yelling at them! In fact, as far as I think, even the cicadas themselves cannot hear the song they are singing.It's just trying to use this tough method to force others to listen. It has very clear vision.Its five eyes will tell it what is going on left, right, and above. As long as it sees someone running, it will immediately stop singing and fly away quietly.But the noise was not enough to disturb it.You can stand behind it and speak, blow your whistle, clap your hands, and hit stones.It's a softer sound than this one. If a sparrow didn't see you, it would have already flew away in panic.The calm cicada continued to make sounds, as if nothing happened. Once, I borrowed two earthen guns, which are used by country people for weddings, and they were filled with gunpowder, which is what I only need to use for the most important celebrations.I put it under the Xiaoxuan tree outside the door.We opened the window very carefully to prevent the glass from being broken.A cicada on a branch overhead cannot see what lies below. The six of us waited below, eager to hear how the band overhead would be affected. "Touch!" The gun was released, and the sound was like thunder. Not affected at all, it still continues to sing.It didn't show the slightest panic and disturbance, and the quality and quantity of the sound didn't change slightly.The second shot, like the first, had no effect. I think, after this experiment, we can be sure that the cicada cannot hear, just like a very deaf person, it can't feel the sound it makes at all! 4. Eggs of cicadas Ordinary cicadas like to lay their eggs on dry twigs. It chooses the smallest branches, and the thickness is mostly between dry grass and pencils.The twigs, which hang very little, are often upturned, and are nearly dead. The cicada finds a suitable twig, and with a sharp-pointed instrument on its breast, pierces it with a row of small holes—the holes seem to have been driven down obliquely with a needle, tearing the fibers and causing them to protrude slightly.If it is not disturbed and damaged, it is often pierced thirty or forty holes in a dead branch. Its eggs are laid in these small holes, which are narrow paths that go down one by one.There are usually about ten eggs in each burrow, so the total number is about three hundred or four hundred. This is a very good family of cicadas.The reason why it lays so many eggs, however, is that, as a defense against a particular danger, it is necessary to produce a large number of grubs, which will be partially destroyed.After many observations, I learned what this danger was.It is a kind of extremely small gnat. Compared with their size, cicadas are simply huge! Like cicadas, gnats also have piercing tools, which are located on the lower part of the body near the middle, and when they protrude, they are at right angles to the body.As soon as the cicada egg is laid, the gnat will destroy it immediately.This is really a disaster in the family of cicadas!It is astonishing how calm and unscrupulous they are in front of a monster that can crush them with a single step.I have seen three gnats lined up, all at the same time ready to prey on a hapless cicada. When the cicada has just filled a small hole with eggs and moves it to a slightly higher place to make another hole, the gnat will go there immediately. Although the cicada's claws can reach it, it is calm and fearless, as if it is at home. Similarly, they pierce a hole above the cicada eggs to lay their own eggs.When the cicada flies back, most of its holes have been filled with other people's eggs. These fake guys can destroy the cicada's eggs.The rapidly maturing grubs—one in each burrow—feed on the eggs and replace the cicada family. After centuries of experience, the poor cicada's mother still knows nothing.Its large piercing eyes, not blind to these terrible villains, flapped its wings.Of course it knew that there were other insects following behind, but it remained unmoved and would rather let itself be sacrificed.It is very easy for it to crush these bad seeds, but it does not change its original instinct to save its family from being destroyed. From the magnifying glass, I have seen the hatching process of cicada eggs.It starts off like an extremely small fish with large, black eyes and a kind of fin under the body.Consists of two front legs joined together.The fins are somewhat athletic and help the grubs rush out of their shells.And help it get out of the fibrous branches, which is more difficult. After the fish-shaped grub goes outside the hole, it immediately takes off its skin.But the shed skin forms a kind of thread by which the grub attaches to the branch.Before it hits the ground, it sunbathes here, kicking its legs, testing its energy, and sometimes swinging lazily on the end of the rope. When the tentacles are free, they can swing left and right, the legs can stretch and stretch, and the one in front can open and close its claws. The body is suspended, and as long as there is a little breeze, it will sway and do somersaults in the air.I have never seen a more wonderful insect than this one. Soon, it fell to the ground.The flea-sized critter dangles on its rope in case it falls on hard surfaces.The body gradually hardens in the air.Now it's time to dive into serious practical life. At this time, it is still in a thousand dangers.As long as there is a little wind, it can be blown to hard rocks, or rutted sewage, or barren yellow sand, or clay, so hard that it cannot drill down. The weak animal had such an urgent need to hide that it had to go underground in search of a hiding place.The weather is getting colder, and if you slow down, you will be in danger of death.It had to look around for soft soil, and no doubt many of them died before finding a suitable place. Finally, it finds a suitable spot and digs the ground with the hooks on its front feet.From the magnifying glass, I saw it swung its ax to dig down and throw the soldiers out of the ground.After a few minutes, the burrow was complete, and the little creature burrowed down, burying itself, never to be seen again. The underground life of immature cicadas is still an undiscovered secret. All we know is that it lived underground for a long time before it crawled to the surface. It lived underground for about four years.Thereafter, singing in daylight took less than five weeks. Four years of hard work in darkness, and a month of pleasure in the sun, such is the life of the Cicada, and we should not be disgusted by the noisy pomp of its song.Because it has dug the soil for four years, and now it suddenly puts on beautiful clothes, grows wings that can rival the birds, and bathes in the warm sunlight.That cymbal sound high enough to sing its joy, so rare, and so fleeting.