'W' for War in Cicada wing
I used to chuckle at how ancient Romans were convinced they could discern the future in the entrails of animals and the flights of birds. And then I learned that modern Americans thought that cicadas arrived bearing a message.
Some modern Americans, anyway. People like Charles Fackler, a farmer in Lawrenceville, N.J. During the 1902 appearance of Brood X, Fackler strode into the newsroom of the Trenton Evening Times and placed a cicada on a desk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-wings-of-war-some-people-believed-cicadas-carried-a-dire-warning/2021/05/31/513141d2-c223-11eb-9a8d-f95d7724967c_story.html