The Lesson of the Cicadas

 Those of us who live around northern Illinois and southwestern Wisconsin are being visited by these red-eyed critters. They are “Brood XIII of 17-year cicadas.” Brood XIX of 13-year cicadas” are popping up south and east of us. The first dual emergence of two broods since 1803!! So, wow! I thought there must be some deep Gia eco-planet lesson to be learned from such a rare event.

So what should we know about cicadas? OK. The cicadas that are camping out and making such a racket in the trees around here, mate and the females lay eggs in grooves they make in the bark of the trees. The eggs hatch as nymphs who drop to the ground and burrow down to hang out for 13 or 17 years, when they surface again. To wit:

These are the holes in the dirt you see around the trees where the nymphs emerge.

Then the nymphs climb up the tree. 

 

Where they molt their nymph identity and emerge as adults.

Then both male and female adults die off in a few weeks. Then, as stated above, nymphs hatch from the eggs and drop to the ground, where they tunnel down for the 13 or 17 year hiatus, surface again, molt out of their nymph shells, and climb up the trees to start all over again. Deep huh? 

Is that all there is? I mean aren’t we missing something here? 13 or 17 years underground - just sucking on tree roots? There has to be more to it than that. I’m thinking nymph drive-ins, cafes, elementary schools, car pools. We’re talking bazillions of cicada teenagers who all decide to pop up at the same time, have cicada orgies, and then commit mass suicide. 

How do they decide on that? Yeah, I know, I know, teenagers assert their individuality by all doing the same things, clothes, music, slang, at the same time. But mass migration, cicada raves, and suicide? A bit much don’t you think?

But then I think maybe I’m pushing the secret lives of cicadas theme a bit too far. Maybe there is no deeper message here. Eat, sleep for a really long time, procreate and die. That’s all she wrote for cicadas. 

They are, after all, just teenagers with, as far as we know, very little brain - sort of like human teenagers, who, however, have the advantage of growing in to fully functioning adults who can live for decades - sometimes behaving rationally.

But there is a legitimate gripe for both cicada and human teens: can’t y’all do whatever you are going to do a bit more quietly?