Great stuff from a bit about the bug

Cicada Panic, 1860 Style - The Daily Beast:

"For the periodical cicada, that giant-in-the-earth among aboriginal American insects, appears to be on the wane. like the dinosaur or the buffalo, it is too great for these small times. Every farm, every town, every clearing and pasture lot spells its doom, curtails its once far-flung empire. "