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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 5, 2024 22:33:13 GMT -5
Australian cicadas spend 6-8 years underground.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 6, 2024 8:27:19 GMT -5
That's so cool, ozzie. I love the fact that for lots of insects, the adults we see are only a fraction of their lives. Large dragonflies live underwater for 3 or 4 years before emerging as adults, for example.
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Post by vinnyd on Jan 8, 2024 7:46:11 GMT -5
I don't think it's quite like that. The 17-year cicadas appear every year, and then the descendants of that year's cicadas appear 17 years later. But some years have bigger broods than others. Brood X is the big one that gets people talking. 2021 was a Brood X year. So next year there will not be a gazillion 17-year cicadas.
I suppose the same sort of thing is true for the 12-year cicadas. If the cycles coincide there will be more cicadas than usual but I would guess fewer than in a Brood X year.
Edit: Missed the fact that there was a second page. That was a reply to sprite.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 8, 2024 8:30:11 GMT -5
13, not 12
Interestingly, some get out of whack, so you’ll have small batches of 16- or 11- year cicadas, but those generally aren’t in big enough numbers to make a big difference
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Post by sprite on Jan 8, 2024 12:41:04 GMT -5
interesting...
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 12, 2024 2:50:58 GMT -5
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 12, 2024 6:12:05 GMT -5
Thank you ozzie!
That article mentions "the disconcerting feeling of water droplets raining down " - how you can be walking in an area with lots of cicadas overhead and feel like it's raining, but actually it's cicada pee. That happened to me on a bright sunny day in Costa Rica, like what is going on?! and the field trip leader explained that I was being peed on by cicadas. Lovely
I like the concept of a "Christmas beetle," too, since we certainly don't have any beetles here at Christmas!
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 15, 2024 21:02:32 GMT -5
I just learned that two mass emergences of cicadas are happening in the US this summer, and they both converge in - Chicago! But they'll be gone by the end of June, and I won't be there until August. Big huge sad
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Jan 17, 2024 3:38:11 GMT -5
What a pity you’ll miss them, Liiisa,although the noise can be dreadful.
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Post by Liiisa on Jan 17, 2024 6:59:52 GMT -5
I love the noise! Loud, though, yes. It was challenging to lead bird walks during the 2021 emergence, since you i.d. lots of them first by their calls and we couldn't hear anything but cicadas!
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Post by tzarine on Feb 14, 2024 3:35:22 GMT -5
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Post by snowwhite on Feb 14, 2024 8:33:45 GMT -5
I've read / heard stuff about 13 and 17 year cycles for cicadas - something about the prime number of year cycles evolving as a strategy to avoid predators. I forget details.
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Post by sprite on Feb 14, 2024 9:16:43 GMT -5
Hannah Fry was talking about it in Radio 6?
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Post by tinaja on Feb 14, 2024 10:39:03 GMT -5
The last time they were supposed to come out, I didn't notice anything.
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Post by tzarine on Apr 7, 2024 20:48:37 GMT -5
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Post by vinnyd on Apr 8, 2024 8:14:14 GMT -5
The cycles are relatively large prime numbers. I forget why that helps with predators.
2004 seemed much bigger to me than 2021, and I wasnot alone. Somebody said it was because so many places where they buried themselves have been paved over. But it may have been just that my commute in 2004 involved a lot of walking, and I wasn't walking as much 17 years later.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 8, 2024 8:31:12 GMT -5
I think it’s a combination of both, Vinny. Some places in 2021 were still deafening, but not all.
I wish I could be in Chicago for the double brood; that will be so cool.
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Post by fishface on Apr 8, 2024 19:29:38 GMT -5
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 8, 2024 19:31:01 GMT -5
Oh yeah, we saw lots of partial cicadas because of the fungus in the last emergence. lol never had any bits land on my though
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Post by HalcyonDaze on Apr 8, 2024 19:46:56 GMT -5
A song - the cicada that ate Five Dock
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Post by tzarine on Apr 15, 2024 20:49:00 GMT -5
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Post by jimm on Apr 16, 2024 2:59:40 GMT -5
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Post by Phar Lap on Apr 16, 2024 7:34:44 GMT -5
I have given up on other people’s links, all I get is “Bad gateway 404”!
Underneath the very large orange that grew in our backyard, there must have been hundreds and hundreds of holes - cicada holes dad said they were. Every summer they would “sing” - noisy little buggers they were too, almost deafening but I loved listening to them. I was not a very kind child for I would deliberately go stomping around under the orange tree just to shut them up! They would go quite for a few seconds before the choir started up again. The orange tree was pretty much in the dead centre of the back yard so the cicada noise was heard equally all over the backyard. This was in the days when a normal block of land was fifty feet by one hundred and fifty feet. I had to look up metric - 1524 by 4572. Imperial measurements sound better. “Hello Stan, how big’s your block?” “Fifteen hundred and twenty four cms by four and a half thousand and change”.
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romily
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Post by romily on Apr 16, 2024 7:49:41 GMT -5
In German they are called "Grillen", which is rather funny as the verb "grillen" means to cook on a BBQ. Don't ask me if there is anything relation between the two words.
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Post by Phar Lap on Apr 16, 2024 8:21:30 GMT -5
In German they are called "Grillen", which is rather funny as the verb "grillen" means to cook on a BBQ. Don't ask me if there is anything relation between the two words. They’re very popular as a snack in SEA as well as fried cockroach.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 17, 2024 7:15:31 GMT -5
Interesting about the “grillen” - to me that sounds like “Gryllidae,” the family name of crickets. Of course cicadas & crickets are very different things, but maybe there’s some relation between the words back in the past.
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Post by riverhorse on Apr 17, 2024 7:42:32 GMT -5
Interesting about the “grillen” - to me that sounds like “Gryllidae,” the family name of crickets. Of course cicadas & crickets are very different things, but maybe there’s some relation between the words back in the past. Wow, that's interesting, I never knew that. Just always thought it was just another of those weird German words!
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romily
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Post by romily on Apr 17, 2024 8:12:44 GMT -5
mind, I have no idea that and what the difference if between Crickets and Cicadas. I am talking about the insects who make nice sounds at night...
River - weird german words? German words by definition are logical.
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Post by Liiisa on Apr 17, 2024 8:22:45 GMT -5
I will have to do a nerd dive into cicada and cricket terminology tonight! I’d do it now except I kinda have to work 🙃
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