Post by jlibs on Jun 10, 2008 14:11:11 GMT -5
For my bug loving friends, the Cicadas are back.... What Cicada fly patterns do you know? Boston Globe article below.
-Josh
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Cape is again abuzz
Raucous hordes of 17-year cicadas checking in, with pent-up passion
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Sarah Schweitzer
Globe Staff / June 10, 2008
One of nature's enduring enigmas is making an appearance once again, bringing a sibilant drone to the towns of Cape Cod, as it has every 17 years with startling regularity.
Insects known as periodical cicadas are emerging from underground haunts for a final hurrah - a nearly monthlong orgy of come-hither songs, mating, and laying eggs - before dying and leaving their progeny behind to begin anew the curious and highly unusual 17-year growth period.
Residents are bracing themselves.
"We're thinking about moving to Boston to live with my daughter!" joked Jeanne Duchemin, of Mashpee, who recalls the inundation of the red-eyed bugs during their last appearance. "They were on the cars, hanging from the trees. They are just a nuisance, but they are horrible."
In Mashpee, the high school decided to hold its graduation ceremony indoors last weekend to prevent the insects from interfering.
Because the bugs could number in the millions per acre, specialists say, the mating call performed by the males will make an awesome daytime soundtrack for Cape dwellers - sounding, according to some, like a hovering UFO.
"This is your chance to use the word 'cacophony,' " said Tom French, assistant director of MassWildlife.
The periodical cicada of Massachusetts - dubbed Brood XIV by scientists and not to be confused with annual "dogday" cicadas that appear in the Bay State toward the end of each summer - has not been seen above ground since the collapse of the Soviet Union. That year, 1991, they squeezed their way out of eggs pocketed in tree branches, fell to the ground, and burrowed into the soil. Month after month, year after year, they subsisted on the watery sap of grasses and trees. They are emerging now, as the temperature warms, precisely 17 years later, to molt one last time, before buzzing into yards and forests for the mating ritual.
Cicada specialists said the insects are not to be feared. They buzz impressively when caught, but they don't sting or bite or carry diseases communicable to people. During their 17 years of living underground, they are not known to damage the roots of plants that they feed on. The tree shoots where female periodical cicadas insert their sickle-shaped tubes to deposit eggs often turn brown and wither, but the process is considered a natural pruning for native, healthy trees, although it can be harmful to young trees.
Scientists vigorously debate the reason for the periodical cicada's 17-year cycle. Some believe it is a defense mechanism; when massive numbers of the cicadas emerge all at once, predators feast on them but can't eat all of them, leaving behind a substantial stock to mate and lay eggs.
"They've got it figured out that, 'If we all emerge at the same time, a lot will get wiped out, but there will still be enough of us to carry on,' " said Gerry Bunker, an independent researcher who is documenting the Brood XIV periodical cicada in Massachusetts and some of the other 12 states where it will appear. Those are Kentucky, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Among periodical cicadas, there are numerous broods, some of which are on 13-year cycles, often found in the South, and some on 17-year cycles. Each brood is designated with a Roman numeral. According to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Governor William Bradford recorded the Brood XIV name in the 17th century. Colonists mistakenly thought that the insects were the locusts described in the Bible, descending upon them for sins committed, specialists say. (Locusts hail from a different order.)
The periodical cicada tends to measure about 1.5 inches to 2.5 inches. It is black and slender and renowned for its red eyes and orange-tinged wings.
Some scientists say that Brood XIV's showing this year could be less remarkable than its last because development on the Cape has wiped out some forested areas that were breeding grounds.
"If it's a good emergence, there will be tens of thousands," said Robert D. Childs, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "They will be seen climbing up the sides of houses, on trees, in shrubbery. If you have a rhododendron, there might be a dozen cicadas in one leaf cluster."
Some residents say the cicadas' innocuous features are outweighed by other, less desirable ones.
"They're huge and they're dumb: They will fly right into your face," said Pat Dutra, of Marstons Mills, who recalls their earlier emergences. "If you looked yonder, you would see nothing but bugs flying. When the sun rose, the noise started, and when the sun set the noise ended."
But John Cooley, a University of Connecticut researcher who is documenting Brood XIV's emergence, said there is not much residents can do to ward off the insects. Bug spray, he said, would do little to reduce their numbers because there will be so many of them.
He suggested that Cape residents try to think of themselves as ticketholders to a rare show - visible almost exclusively in the eastern half of North America.
"When you are in a chorus" of periodical cicadas, "it is a pretty awesome display of natural power - like a tornado," Cooley said. "When it's going full blast, there is nothing quite like it."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
-Josh
=================================
Cape is again abuzz
Raucous hordes of 17-year cicadas checking in, with pent-up passion
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Sarah Schweitzer
Globe Staff / June 10, 2008
One of nature's enduring enigmas is making an appearance once again, bringing a sibilant drone to the towns of Cape Cod, as it has every 17 years with startling regularity.
Insects known as periodical cicadas are emerging from underground haunts for a final hurrah - a nearly monthlong orgy of come-hither songs, mating, and laying eggs - before dying and leaving their progeny behind to begin anew the curious and highly unusual 17-year growth period.
Residents are bracing themselves.
"We're thinking about moving to Boston to live with my daughter!" joked Jeanne Duchemin, of Mashpee, who recalls the inundation of the red-eyed bugs during their last appearance. "They were on the cars, hanging from the trees. They are just a nuisance, but they are horrible."
In Mashpee, the high school decided to hold its graduation ceremony indoors last weekend to prevent the insects from interfering.
Because the bugs could number in the millions per acre, specialists say, the mating call performed by the males will make an awesome daytime soundtrack for Cape dwellers - sounding, according to some, like a hovering UFO.
"This is your chance to use the word 'cacophony,' " said Tom French, assistant director of MassWildlife.
The periodical cicada of Massachusetts - dubbed Brood XIV by scientists and not to be confused with annual "dogday" cicadas that appear in the Bay State toward the end of each summer - has not been seen above ground since the collapse of the Soviet Union. That year, 1991, they squeezed their way out of eggs pocketed in tree branches, fell to the ground, and burrowed into the soil. Month after month, year after year, they subsisted on the watery sap of grasses and trees. They are emerging now, as the temperature warms, precisely 17 years later, to molt one last time, before buzzing into yards and forests for the mating ritual.
Cicada specialists said the insects are not to be feared. They buzz impressively when caught, but they don't sting or bite or carry diseases communicable to people. During their 17 years of living underground, they are not known to damage the roots of plants that they feed on. The tree shoots where female periodical cicadas insert their sickle-shaped tubes to deposit eggs often turn brown and wither, but the process is considered a natural pruning for native, healthy trees, although it can be harmful to young trees.
Scientists vigorously debate the reason for the periodical cicada's 17-year cycle. Some believe it is a defense mechanism; when massive numbers of the cicadas emerge all at once, predators feast on them but can't eat all of them, leaving behind a substantial stock to mate and lay eggs.
"They've got it figured out that, 'If we all emerge at the same time, a lot will get wiped out, but there will still be enough of us to carry on,' " said Gerry Bunker, an independent researcher who is documenting the Brood XIV periodical cicada in Massachusetts and some of the other 12 states where it will appear. Those are Kentucky, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Among periodical cicadas, there are numerous broods, some of which are on 13-year cycles, often found in the South, and some on 17-year cycles. Each brood is designated with a Roman numeral. According to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Governor William Bradford recorded the Brood XIV name in the 17th century. Colonists mistakenly thought that the insects were the locusts described in the Bible, descending upon them for sins committed, specialists say. (Locusts hail from a different order.)
The periodical cicada tends to measure about 1.5 inches to 2.5 inches. It is black and slender and renowned for its red eyes and orange-tinged wings.
Some scientists say that Brood XIV's showing this year could be less remarkable than its last because development on the Cape has wiped out some forested areas that were breeding grounds.
"If it's a good emergence, there will be tens of thousands," said Robert D. Childs, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "They will be seen climbing up the sides of houses, on trees, in shrubbery. If you have a rhododendron, there might be a dozen cicadas in one leaf cluster."
Some residents say the cicadas' innocuous features are outweighed by other, less desirable ones.
"They're huge and they're dumb: They will fly right into your face," said Pat Dutra, of Marstons Mills, who recalls their earlier emergences. "If you looked yonder, you would see nothing but bugs flying. When the sun rose, the noise started, and when the sun set the noise ended."
But John Cooley, a University of Connecticut researcher who is documenting Brood XIV's emergence, said there is not much residents can do to ward off the insects. Bug spray, he said, would do little to reduce their numbers because there will be so many of them.
He suggested that Cape residents try to think of themselves as ticketholders to a rare show - visible almost exclusively in the eastern half of North America.
"When you are in a chorus" of periodical cicadas, "it is a pretty awesome display of natural power - like a tornado," Cooley said. "When it's going full blast, there is nothing quite like it."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.