Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8, Second Edition

Colophon

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The animals on the cover of Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i, and Oracle8 are cicadas. There are about 1,500 species of cicada. In general, cicadas are large insects with long, thin wings that are perched above an inch-long abdomen. Their heads are also large and contain three eyes and a piercing and sucking mechanism with which to extrude sap from trees. Cicadas are known for their characteristic shrill buzz that is actually the male’s mating song, one of the loudest known insect noises.

Cicadas emerge from the ground in the spring or summer, molt, and shed their skin in the form of a shell. They stay near trees and plants, where they live for four to six weeks with the sole purpose of mating. The adult insects then die, and their young hatch and burrow into the ground. They attach to tree roots and feed off the sap for 4-17 years, after which time they emerge and continue the mating cycle. Cicadas have one of the longest life spans of any insect; the most common species is the periodical cicada, which lives underground for 13-17 years.

Rachel Wheeler was the production editor and proofreader for Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i, and Oracle8. Sarah Jane Shangraw provided quality control and Sada Preisch provided production ...