Word: sap
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...called them, thinking no doubt of the locust plagues described in the Old Testament. Actually, those biblical insects were migratory grasshoppers, which even today cause extensive crop damage in Africa, Asia and South America. In contrast, the 17-year cicadas are reasonably harmless bugs whose only sins are sucking sap out of trees for nourishment and killing small branches by laying eggs in them. They also mess up lawns with their 2-in.-long bodies. Vulnerable sapling oaks and fruit trees can easily be protected with a covering of cheesecloth. "They're more of a nuisance than anything else," says...
...long sojourn underground, subsisting on sap in tree rootlets, the cicada nymph passes through five growth stages, or instars, each of which ends with the insect throwing off its carapace. About two months before it is ready to emerge, the nymph tunnels its way upward, lying at the surface and building a protective earthen turret if the ground is too damp. This final rest stop is truly character building: it apparently enables the insect to develop adult claws and flight muscles to help it cope with life aboveground. "Their bodies undergo a major transformation, especially of muscle structure," says Miller...
...when his own credibility and competence, and that of his staff, are being questioned as never before. The special investigating committees of the Senate and House begin probing anew into Iranscam this month; whatever they find, the President is unlikely to get much respite from a crisis that would sap the energy of the most vigorous Chief Executive...
...Without an imposing military sector to sap investment capital and scientific and managerial talent, Japan is moving toward a position of global economic supremacy," declares the author. "Japan's exports are nearly double those of the Soviet Union . . . U.S. exports of $217 billion and net foreign assets of minus $120 billion yielded a total of $97 billion, just one-third that of Japan...
...buzzy song is a part of the sound of late summer, like those of katydids and whippoorwills. But in the Eastern half of the country at long intervals early in the summer, periodic cicadas emerge from the ground where, in their juvenile form, they have been feeding on the sap of tree roots. All cicadas in a particular region are presumed to be of the same origin and appear in synchrony in early summer. In Northern states and along the eastern edge of the Great Plains, they appear every 17 years; in the Southern and Mississippi valley states, it takes...