Brood XIX and Brood XIII will both emerge this spring. The last time these bugs showed up at the same time in the United States, Thomas Jefferson was president.
The cicadas are coming — and if you’re in the Midwest or the Southeast, they will be more plentiful than ever. Or at least since the Louisiana Purchase.
This spring, for the first time since 1803, two cicada groups known as Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, or the Northern Illinois Brood, are set to appear at the same time, in what is known as a dual emergence.
The last time the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year period, Thomas Jefferson was president. After this spring, it’ll be another 221 years before the broods, which are geographically adjacent, appear together again.
“Nobody alive today will see it happen again,” said Floyd W. Shockley, an entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “That’s really rather humbling.”
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So cool that bugs and trees like prime numbers
It is cool as hell, and for anyone who’s going “huh?”, I’m going to get this half wrong, but it has to do with making sure they don’t fall into “rythem” with their predators cycles. The odds of synchronizing to a prime are lower (because years are integers and a prime can only be in sync with itself or larger, not smaller).
Trees will have mast years on primes where they’ll produce just a crazy amount of acorns. Because they haven’t in so long, the squirrel population etc didn’t explode. So they’ll feast that year but can’t get to them all, and while the population of squirrels might grow that year, next year is a low acorn year again.
Is this why the pon farr is every 7 years
I just want to say I needed a laugh this morning and you delivered lmfao. Thanks stranger.
Last year winter my acorn problem was insane! Not so bad this winter
And ribs, don’t forget about prime ribs
I like prime ribs.
Something something fewer predators
Inspected numbers and choice numbers just aren’t as good.
1803? So the cicadas are a key part of the plan for expanding the power of the judiciary?!?!!!
I remember a huge cicada emergence when I was a kid in the 1980s. You couldn’t get a car out of the driveway without driving over dozens of them.
I wonder if you could capture a high quality, multitrack recording of this emergence event to get a multidimensional audio sample from unique times/geographies where these groups emerge.
With an audio sample that could only come from this specific event every 200+ years, you could set up a program that survives your own death and triggers only when it happens again.
I’m not sure what the utility would be, but I’d watch it on Netflix for sure.
Oh God the noise will be deafening. 😬
Mawp
What?
IT’S ALREADY HAPPENING. NOBODY CAN HEAR ME OVER THE CICADAS! 😱
‘the world’ then lists only places in USA.
You do it to yourselves…
this is actually pretty fascinating, i was under the impression that cicadas emerged periodically world wide, however while they do still spend years underground in other countries, emerging during favourable conditions, giving the impression of periodic emergence; the time period can vary from 1 to 9 years (sometimes longer), but isn’t strict like the USA 13 and 17 cycle. pretty cool.
What is the US if not a place in the world + that is watched?
when unique ecological events happen in any other place in the world, the title is often “x thing is seen in the world for the first time in x years” or some shit like that. honestly sometimes in media yeah, there’s an america-centric worldview being pushed; but sometimes you people get so overzealous about this “the USA is the whole world” schtick. this literally isn’t anything like that jeez. there’s cool unique bugs elsewhere in the world. there wouldnt be people fucking crucifying the title in the comments about those articles.
It’s a US News paper…
Is this bad?
No, they’re harmless and they don’t even do much damage to plants because they mostly eat plant fluid in twigs, which trees and bushes usually survive just fine, even with a huge number of cicadas on them.
They’re just a big mess.
No, they don’t cause damage on their own. Birds get a windfall of big nutritious bugs. Humans might be a little creeped out.
Plus everywhere you go sounds like one of those old sci fi movies
I ate one once. 5/10, would be better deep fried.
People do fry them. I posted a link elsewhere in the thread.
Dehydrated and seasoned.
I genuinely love the cacophony of cicadas and I live in the Midwest so I’m thrilled for this!
Keanu Reeves remembers it like it was yesterday
Nic Cage too
I miss being able to make this joke about Dick Clark. 😢
Now people will know what having tinnitus is like!
spawn more overlords blerching regurgitation gurgling neighing sounds
Insufficient minerals
We require more Vespene gas
Emm, with the climate change and pollution, should we panic if they don’t show up?
The last major brood batch showed up a couple years ago. I think it’ll be fine.
It showed up but it was way smaller than it was 17 years prior.
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It is only the North American genus Magicicada which has 17 and 13-year cycles, so yes, this is something the world hasn’t seen since 1803. Because it happens nowhere else in the world.
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If a comet is the brightest comet in 10,000 years but can only be seen in the southern hemisphere, “the world hasn’t seen a comet this bright in 10,000 years” would still be appropriate even if you personally don’t live in the southern hemisphere and can’t see it with your own eyes.
Ok, that was exactly my point earlier. I thought that since some countries experience annual cicadas, the U.S. experiencing both periodical cycles simultaneously would be similar to what other countries experience every year. However, I was wrong. It turns out that the numbers for periodical cicadas are much, much greater than those for the annual types. So, indeed, just their sheer numbers will make them a spectacular event. Sorry for the misunderstanding. TIL
No worries.
What is the best weapon against this insurgence?
Ear plugs.
Yes, it’s important to wear protection when operating the Gatling turrets
Nukes probably.
I wonder if climate change will have dented their number. Large swaths of North America have been hit by unprecedented, multi-year droughts thanks to Climate Change. Trees under severe stress and unable to properly support sapsucking insects over multiple years may have killed off many cicada grubs.
