Everything you ever needed to know about the Periodical Cicada!

 Everything you ever needed to know about the Periodical Cicada!

The photograph reminds me of the time I was about ten years old when we used to find green cicadas on the trunks of oak trees on our way to and from school. We used to tickle their lower regions to see if we could get them to sing.

Of course, our local variety was not the 17 year Periodical Cicada of North  America. We also used to see their empty shells still attached to the bark of a tree. I had to wait a long time until Sir David Attenborough rekindled my interest in these creatures. 

So many years ago our very fine friend Sir David Attenborough presented a short sequence in one of his natural history masterpieces concerning the "Periodical Cicada" of Northern America. I was immensely taken by this segment describing the mating frenzy which occurred after the insects had spent 17 years underground prior to emerging to make their deafening noises in many places, to mate and to die. Their offspring would then seek life underground and emerge to repeat the cycle another 17 years later. 

I often wondered what they did to keep themselves occupied in the period between their spawning and their re-emergence? It seemed such a long time to be out of the action, unlike our coral spawning which is more like once a year and which is tied to a specific time of year.

Anyhow, a couple of days ago the trusty old Smithsonian Magazine put out an entertaining and informative piece which fills in many answers to the questions I had, and much more:

14 Fun Facts about Cicadas

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/14-fun-facts-about-cicadas-180977361/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210331-daily-responsive&spMailingID=44725101&spUserID=ODExMTAyNDM4MTIyS0&spJobID=1980018177&spReportId=MTk4MDAxODE3NwS2

I hope you find this article from the Smithsonian as engaging as I did.

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