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submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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.”

Non-paywall link

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[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 45 points 10 months ago

So cool that bugs and trees like prime numbers

[-] batmaniam@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 12 points 10 months ago

Is this why the pon farr is every 7 years

[-] batmaniam@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I just want to say I needed a laugh this morning and you delivered lmfao. Thanks stranger.

[-] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Last year winter my acorn problem was insane! Not so bad this winter

[-] FiniteLooper@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago

And ribs, don’t forget about prime ribs

[-] Iwasondigg@lemmy.one 3 points 10 months ago
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[-] TomatoSlayer@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Inspected numbers and choice numbers just aren't as good.

[-] gothic_lemons@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago

1803? So the cicadas are a key part of the plan for expanding the power of the judiciary?!?!!!

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Creddit@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 10 months ago

Oh God the noise will be deafening. 😬

[-] birdbrain5381@dmv.social 11 points 10 months ago
[-] Hotdogman@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago
[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 19 points 10 months ago

IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING. NOBODY CAN HEAR ME OVER THE CICADAS! 😱

[-] set_secret@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

'the world' then lists only places in USA.

You do it to yourselves..

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

What is the US if not a place in the world + that is watched?

[-] jwmgregory@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

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.

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[-] cyborgbabyman@lemmy.l0l.city 11 points 10 months ago
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] ArtieShaw@kbin.social 25 points 10 months ago

No, they don't cause damage on their own. Birds get a windfall of big nutritious bugs. Humans might be a little creeped out.

[-] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 17 points 10 months ago

Plus everywhere you go sounds like one of those old sci fi movies

[-] NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago

I ate one once. 5/10, would be better deep fried.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

Dehydrated and seasoned.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

People do fry them. I posted a link elsewhere in the thread.

[-] poppy@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

I genuinely love the cacophony of cicadas and I live in the Midwest so I’m thrilled for this!

[-] bcrown@lemmy.l0l.city 8 points 10 months ago

Keanu Reeves remembers it like it was yesterday

[-] zrose@lemmy.l0l.city 4 points 10 months ago

Nic Cage too

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I miss being able to make this joke about Dick Clark. 😢

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

spawn more overlords blerching regurgitation gurgling neighing sounds

[-] f43r05@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago
[-] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 3 points 10 months ago

We require more Vespene gas

[-] ryan213@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago

Now people will know what having tinnitus is like!

[-] Annoyed_Crabby@monyet.cc 5 points 10 months ago

Emm, with the climate change and pollution, should we panic if they don't show up?

[-] jeffw@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

The last major brood batch showed up a couple years ago. I think it’ll be fine.

[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

It showed up but it was way smaller than it was 17 years prior.

[-] toed@lemmy.l0l.city 3 points 10 months ago

What is the best weapon against this insurgence?

[-] Username02@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Nukes probably.

[-] rekabis@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago

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.

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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
268 points (100.0% liked)

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