After a rather slothful 17 years spend unbend underground , billions of fabulously noisy insects are about to split out of the earth , noisilyswarming over the East Coast and wreaking mayhem along the way . This is The groovy Cicada Invasion of 2013 — but what the hell is a cicadia , anyway , and why have they been hiding for nearly two decades ?
So what is a cicada anyway?
Glad you asked ! Cicadas are peculiarly atrocious dirt ball : they have prominent eyes and big , well - developed wings . These small cuss are competent flyers . Cicadia are often colloquially referred to as locust tree , but that ’s somewhat of a misnomer . In fact , they ’re their own peculiar little family of insects , and there are over 2,500 species of the critter .
How often do they show up?
So when you hear folks talking about the Great Cicada Invasion , it ’s deserving call up that , actually , they ’re referring to one special type of the insect : the Magicicada , a peculiar little creature that shows up in massive swarm once in a risque moon ( or a few blue moons , actually ) . Swarms of Magicicada — sometimes refer to as the annual fly or jar fly — rear up and bring down themselves on the surface of the planetonce every 13 or 17 years , calculate on their location . The forthcoming invasion is by a group known asBrood 2 , that come along every 17 years , and were last seen in 1996 . If this all sounds strange , it ’s because it is : their long period of dormancy still cause scientist to scratch their heads a little .
What the hell have they been doing for 17 years?
Growing ! While the 17 - yr period is a little mysterious , what is be intimate is that Magicicada do take a long time to age : they expend those 17 long years growing from larvae into their full adult word form , feeding on succus from plant root along the fashion . Then , the amply rise grownup emerge — literally all at once — and typically live for just hebdomad or month , tops .
scientist have amount up with all kinds of theories about how the 17 - year lifecycles evolved into being , but it ’s probably a means of endurance : mass - emergence is asurvival trait called vulture satiation , which see enough of the glitch come through predation to go on and reproduce , ready to provide the next wave of dirt ball year after . Interestingly , it ’s been suggested that the fact that the life Hz are both with child quality numbers could be another predatory shunning scheme , which finish those intent on consume them synchronise their own generation to divisor of the cicada emergence time period . In other discussion , prime number life cycles/second mean that predators ca n’t easily derive to rely on their growth .
When and where will this invasion take place?
Cicadas start seem , like any sensible fauna , when the temperature becomes bearable . Records show that the bugs wrestle out of their shells and take extension when the temperature attain 64 degrees Fahrenheit ( 18 degrees Celsius ) . The outbreakbeing branded the Great Cicada Invasion of 2013is expected to protrude down in the Carolinas — farthermost South , where it gets fond first — and then spread north to DC , Philadelphia and New York . The exact timing clearly depends on the conditions , but average suggest that the swarming should start in late April or other May , and fetch up in the northeast sometime former June . bug-hunter anticipate the cicada toshow up all overthe countryside , but also in woodsy suburbs — and even in urban parks . New York ’s Central Park is expect to get hit intemperately , for instance .
Will they cause any trouble?
They ’re fairly harmless to humans ; cicadas do n’t have a bite or sting , to speak of , but do on occasion mistake limb for branches . If one lands on your arm and attempt to drain you of sap it ’ll anguish a minuscule — but should n’t in reality do any damage . But they can have a negative impingement elsewhere : they can ruin crop and vegetation when females lay their orchis deep in branches , and that ’s even been get laid to wipe out local population of other creatures like squirrels . Oh , and it might pay to have some earplug handy in May and June : the buzz bring forth bya horde can get through 120 - dB , which is about the same noise stage as a loud rock’n’roll show .
And why are they so damn loud?
Sex . No , really : the short adult life-time of a cicada intend that there ’s a despairing rush for all the animate being to get interfering and procreate . To solicit their distaff comrade , virile cicadas create a loud haphazardness using part of their body called “ tymbals”—complex organs consist of rib and membrane , which produce a clicking sound as they buckle back and away . The resulting , um , song , is flashy enough to for good damage human hearing — so it pay to keep your length . Or if you ’re keen to get free of the matter , weigh eat them : in some body politic , cicada areconsidered a delicacy .
effigy byBruce Marlinunder Creative Commons license
Insects
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and civilization news show in your inbox day by day .
News from the hereafter , drive home to your present .
You May Also Like
