I
got my answer two days ago when I woke up to the deafening sound of a business
fire alarm amplified to annoying levels, coming from the dense woods. Was
someone walking and playing the soundtrack of a scary sci-fi movie? It was the
chorus of male cicadas, invading the surrounding habitat and looking for mates.
Cicadas
are in a hurry because they only live 4-6 weeks. They’ve been living
underground attached to the roots of trees for the last 17 years, sucking on root
sap, feeling any changes in the tree’s nutrients and hormones, waiting for the right
moment to crawl out of the ground when soil reaches 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
To
attract females as far away as a mile, males vibrate white plates called
tymbals on either side of their abdomen. The constant chirping sound coming
from the forest resonates to deafening levels, measuring as high as 92
decibels.
Every
seventeen years this harmless insect emerges in North Carolina, Virginia,
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. Cicada nymphs, dormant in the ground
underneath miles of new pavement and construction that took place since 1996, are
certainly out of luck.
Michael
Raupp, Professor of Entomology at the University of Maryland, counted 6 cicadas
bore holes per square foot in North Carolina, estimating a population of 150
million per square mile, roughly exceeding twice the human population on the
East Coast.
These
nymphs were hatched in 1996, long before we were able to share their pictures
on social websites. They shed their exoskeletons after crawling from the ground
and spend about three weeks as adults with red eyes, mating and laying eggs in
tree branches. The newly hatched brood, expected to number 30 billion, will
burrow into the ground for 17 years of adolescence, until 2030 to be exact.
The
winged insects can fly - several who were in my garage took off when I touched
them. Scientists say that males can reproduce with as many females as possible
but the females only mate once. Their sustenance during the 4-6 week period is
the sap of trees. After their life cycle ends, corpses litter the ground, to
the delight of the food chain.
Entomologists
study the variables and boundaries of cicada emergence from the ground. Cicadas
can be a protein-rich meal. I leave it up to Isa Betancourt, entomologist at
Drexel University, who called the bugs “the shrimp of the land,” to enjoy this
bizarre delicacy. I am not at all surprised that the University of Maryland established
a group called “Cicadamaniacs” who has cobbled a cookbook with American
sounding recipes incorporating cicadas as the main ingredient.
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