May 26, 2021
Thinking Citizen Blog — Cicadas : “an Erotic Month Long Orgy of Sex and Death”
Thinking Citizen Blog — Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day
Today’s Topic: Cicadas — “an Erotic Month Long Orgy of Sex and Death”
After waiting for 17 years, Cicadas go crazy. And for humans it’s like a horror movie. Do you have any particularly vivid cicada memories? I have only one. The 1970 “emergence.” I was in high school in Washington DC. Trees, lawns, cars, sidewalks covered in them. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Impossible to avoid stepping on them. Are cicadas locusts? What’t the difference? Today, a few random notes. The good news: they don’t sting or bite. Experts — please chine in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
TIMBALS, THE RESONANCE CHAMBER, AND THE DIFFERENCE WITH CRICKETS
1.The extremely loud sound produced by the male cicada is not made the same way that the sound of crickets is — by rubbing limbs together (called stridulation).
2. The mating call of the cicada is made “by vibrating two drum-like membranes (called timbals) covering hollow chambers in the abdomen.” The chambers magnify the sound.
3. The African cicada can make as much noise as a chain saw or snow blower! That would be about 106 decibels compared to a hair dryer at 70 and physical pain at 130.
NOT THAT DIFFERENT FROM HUMANS REALLY
1. Same programming language — A, C, G, T. Two eyes. Thorax, abdomen. Limbs — six limbs rather than four, it’s true.
2. 17 year childhood, followed by a sex-crazed phase, followed by death.
3. Yes — they have wings and we don’t. Not fair. But we do have a slightly more developed brain.
NOT LIKE THE BIBLICAL LOCUSTS OR THE ONES THREATENING THE HORN OF AFRICA TODAY
1. Cicadas are not locusts. They belong to a different “order.” Cicadas are “Hemipterans” (like aphids), while locusts are “Orthopterans” (along with grasshoppers and crickets). The locust above is the type devastating East Africa today.
2. Cicadas can become “zombies” when infected by a particular fungus (Massospora) which castrates males but this does not dampen their sexual appetite causing them to spread the deadly spores. “We call them flying salt shakers of death,” Matt Kasson, a researcher at West Virginia State University. (See fifth link below).
3. There is a species of wasp specialized in killing cicadas. (See fifth and sixth links below).
NB: Cicadas are edible. Their taste has been compared to asparagus, shrimp, and peanut butter. Some gourmands have a preference for deep fried others dry roasted. Warning: “may contain high levels of mercury and cause allergic reactions especially among those with shellfish allergies.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_X
http://thescienceexplorer.com/nature/these-cicadas-have-been-waiting-17-years-have-sex
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997998920/the-fungus-thats-making-cicadas-sex-crazy
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/958543535/locust-swarms-threaten-parts-of-east-africa
The Best Way to Handle the Coming Cicada Invasion? Heat Up the Deep Fryer
Click here for the last three years of posts arranged by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to climate change or the environment. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to climate change that the rest of us may have missed. Your favorite chart or table perhaps…
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.
