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Related: About this forumThe Cicadas are coming!
The cicadas are coming, and some may become flying saltshakers of deathhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2024/04/20/cicadas-2024-emergence-fungus-mysteries/
That is quite the healine: "Flying Saltshakers of Death"
Not since Thomas Jefferson was president has this happened in 1803.
This spring and summer, people in parts of the American Midwest and South will get to experience a numerically magnificent wildlife event: a rare double emergence of periodical cicadas. With the arrival of Brood XIX and Brood XIII, trillions of harmless, baby-carrot-size insects will be singing their hearts out from Wisconsin to Louisiana, Maryland to Georgia, and many places in between.
The last time these broods co-emerged, the year was 1803, Thomas Jefferson was president, and the Louisiana Purchase had just been completed which means many of the states where cicada love songs will soon fill the air were not even officially part of the nation yet.
As impressive as that is, this years entomological phenomenon will be extra-special for researchers hoping to unravel the evolutionary mysteries of bugs that only crawl out of the ground in roughly 13-year and 17-year intervals.
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The Cicadas are coming! (Original Post)
SleeplessinSoCal
Apr 20
OP
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,725 posts)1. Do not take if you are allergic to Secada. NT
CurtEastPoint
(18,676 posts)2. John Secada
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,175 posts)8. Very funny.
I've no idea how I misspelled it. Especially after reading two articles.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,725 posts)10. I post from a phone. I'm not surprised by imaginative spelling.
Thats not what I said!
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,175 posts)11. I post from my phone as well.
It changed "misspelled' to 'missed', even using predictive text. It's become very entertaining.
Blues Heron
(5,949 posts)3. more than roughly 13 and 17 - its exactly 13 and 17 years. There is no doubt when the next hatching will be.
AI written?
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,175 posts)5. it's the double emergence that makes it news worthy
Blues Heron
(5,949 posts)6. im commenting on the word roughly.
Its exactly, not roughly. I get that its the rare double emergence.
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,175 posts)7. I'm thinking horror movie now...
these two are so geographically close that they may overlap and interbreed in some of the woods and fields near Springfield, Ill., a potentially exciting rarity for entomologists.
And what will be the cycle of the new cicadas? We will have to wait to see,
Blues Heron
(5,949 posts)9. i would love to see a new brood form, maybe a 7 year or something.
or maybe an extra long rip van winkle type brood - 40 years.
ms liberty
(8,620 posts)4. Cicadas.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,725 posts)12. First the eclipse; now this. End times for sure.
Or just nature taking its course.
And good evening.