Brood Nineteen
May. 23rd, 2011 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neverspentI heard the Brood XIX cicadas! I'm pretty sure I did; they were definitely cicadas and it's too early for the annual ones. I was driving through the hills yesterday and had stopped to take a picture of some coneflowers. When there was no traffic noise, I could hear the harsh sawing of cicadas, but above it there was a higher, singing note I've never heard before. It was very loud.
I hope I get to see some of them before they die, not to emerge again for another 13 years! Brood XIX is one of the three 13-year cicada species in North America, and it's the most widely distributed brood, over most places in the American South and Midwest, including all of Missouri and Arkansas. Periodical cicadas are genus Magicicada, isn't that a great name?
One interesting thing I've heard about periodical cicadas is that they have prime numbered cycles. Maybe coincidence, but maybe significant in some way that's still a mystery to us. We don't even know how they count years while they're underground.
USDA image: Fig. 118. from Insects, their way and means of living, R. E. Snodgrass
I hope I get to see some of them before they die, not to emerge again for another 13 years! Brood XIX is one of the three 13-year cicada species in North America, and it's the most widely distributed brood, over most places in the American South and Midwest, including all of Missouri and Arkansas. Periodical cicadas are genus Magicicada, isn't that a great name?
One interesting thing I've heard about periodical cicadas is that they have prime numbered cycles. Maybe coincidence, but maybe significant in some way that's still a mystery to us. We don't even know how they count years while they're underground.
USDA image: Fig. 118. from Insects, their way and means of living, R. E. Snodgrass