Periodical cicadas

[mmcirvin]

We don't ever seem to get cicada infestations in Massachusetts on the scale that I remember from Virginia. This may sound strange, but hearing of this year's bumper crop from my mother, I miss them. I always thought they were pretty cool. It's some combination of their enormous size, black-with-evil-red-eyes color scheme, tendency to leave frightening-looking empty split skins on trees, and ability to make so much noise that one singing cicada typically sounds to the untutored ear like some sort of massive insect chorus. Once you realize that they don't bite or sting, it's like being in on the joke. They tend to fly around at great speed without much regard for where they are going, and often slam into things and people, which I suppose can be trying for the insect-phobic.

Comments

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

one of these days I'm going to do a google search for "cicada" and see why everyone's talking about them.

but not today.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Here is a page about cicadas (http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/Michigan_Cicadas/Michigan/Index.html). The 17-year ones are in genus Magicicada, about a quarter of the way down the page. Note the scale: these are big bugs. The song labeled "Court III" that sounds like a lawn sprinkler is the one that has Proustian effects on me.

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

Indeed, cicada photos seem to have even temporarily supplanted sublease ads on bloomington, an impressive feat. They're starting to come out here in large numbers, but aren't buzzing yet; there are lots of crunchy cases underfoot and red-eyed beetles wandering dazedly through the trees.

[doctroid.livejournal.com]

Brood X is making the news this year. In upstate New York we have Brood VII. Actually it says here they used to be found in ten upstate counties but have been devastated in recent years and now are found only in Onondaga County.

(I'm a little bewildered by

Cicadas need large forest tracts to reproduce, says Gilbert, but during the 20th century, much of their breeding habitat was converted to agriculture.

I thought I'd heard there was more forest around in upstate New York these days than at any time since the mid 19th century when much of upstate was settled and almost all the old growth forest was cleared. I may have that wrong.)

My wife's aunt lives (and we used to) just west of the Onondaga Nation mentioned at the end of that article, and when Brood VII emerged in 2001 she fried some of them up for snacks. I never got around to having one, though, so I'll just have to wait 14 more years and see if there still is a Brood VII.

Brood VII may be on the decline, but I'm thinking "Brood VII" is a better band name than "Brood X".