In a neat coincidence, my Grandma and I were both 12 years old the first time the 17-year periodical cicadas, Magicicada Brood II, emerged. For her they have since returned 5 times (she is 97!), for me, only once. Below is a quick round up of cicada related links.
- For a primer on the life-cycle and life-history of these cicadas and check out these articles at EarthSky, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and LiveScience, which also has a slideshow of 6 Crazy Facts About Cicadas, then watch these videos THE CICADAS ARE COMING! and the beautiful Return of the Cicadas. Of course, nobody does a nature explanation video better than Sir David Attenborough,
- Over at Biodiversity in Focus, there is a great summary of an elegant experiment that sought to understand how these cicadas manage to keep track of time, hint: it involves tree rings. Oddly enough, it turns out that discovering the mating secrets of cicadas won’t guarantee you tenure.
- If you are fortunate (unfortunate?) enough to be in an area where cicadas are emerging, be sure to use Magicicada and/or Radiolab to help track and predict them.
- Wondering what to do when the cicadas swarm? Consider cooking them up, there is no shortage of recipes out there, and the cookbook Cicada-licious is freely available.
Related articles
- Reading Round-Up: Cicada Edition (yourwildlife.org)
- Time for Cicadas! (membracid.wordpress.com)
- The Cicadas Are Here! (huffingtonpost.com)
- Emergence of 17-year cicadas delayed by cool spring (nj.com)
- Live Cicada Cam: Insects Expected to Hit the East Coast by the Billions (Video) (scienceworldreport.com)
- Prime Numbers Are The Secret To The Cicada’s Success (zen-haven.com)
- 17 year Cicada emergence GIF (itsokaytobesmart.com)
I was recently promoted to the position of “Doomsayer” on my ultimate team…so I’ve needed to build some legit street cred. Conveniently, I’ve been using this occurrence (amongst others) as evidence of the resurgence of biblical plagues. The cicada clockwork re-emergence isn’t just an amazing and unique lifecycle, its great resume material!
Also, thanks for the Magicicada and Radiolab links, they will help me plan my trip to NYC so that I don’t miss them!