Brood 13: Emergence of the Cicadas

there's this cacophony. Yeah, just this, this chorus of just insane insect noises, and you can almost feel it on your skin, like like the sound we're hearing right now in the background. Get can't possibly do it justice because you because you you you almost feel it. And and it's it has this this kind of rise and fall, this uh crescendo rises up all around you, and then it kind of murmurs it down again, and it's just it's it's amazing. It's it's amazing. And it's also a

signal that your summer overlords have a right. And it's it's not just us here in Georgia, this is all over the world. So for all your listeners, you probably know what we're talking about, are most of you, because you know, they're everywhere. It's the greatest insect infestation in the world. Cicadas the best insect, the greatest, biggest, uh, most craziest. Yeah, yeah, it's it's pretty crazy, it's and

and just amazing to behold these guys. Cicadas or cicadas if you're rather Yeah, you'll hear me go between both, because it's a weird little language thing for me. But yeah, cicada's right now. But yeah, and they're obviously they've been on our mind because, as you said, um, they sort of usher in the hottest point of summer, at least here in Georgia, and you become very aware of this

sound permeating the air all around you. Yeah. Currently we're dealing with what is called brood thirteen, because there are different broods of cicadas. Uh, and though they are numerous species. For starters, they're like three thousand or more different species. I suppose we should describe what they look like, just in case people are not really familiar. Yeah. Yeah, they are kind of monstrous looking or beautiful looking, depending on your opinion. Well, I think both are apt. Yeah, they

based when when humans start really seeing them. They're they're emerging as this little nymph, this little uh ground based creature that looks kind of like if you've ever seen the Miyazaki film uh Nasica Valley the Wind, those big giant insects that are in that with a glowing red eyes, they kind of look like that. They look they're kind of they're really kind of awesome like that, because suddenly they're everywhere crawling up the sides of trees and they're

milky white. So yeah, yeah, and uh and they really look alien like there is I mean, most insects do have kind of an alien look to them, but these guys really look awesome. And they crawl up to a certain height and then they begin to mold, right, and so they so they begin their life underground, so that's why they got that kind of milky white body. And like you said, they make their way to the trees and then they begin to molt and low and behold

these beautiful wings just unfurl. Yeah, and they inflate them and uh and and once they're ready to go that they take off. They don't always get to take off sometimes there are some some flaws in the emergence ritual if you will, especially like if there's like pesticide in the area, that'll mess with it and they just end up being half emerged and something comes and eats them. But yeah, once they have those wings, then they're able to fly around make just fabulous noises and uh, and

they make different noises. The males are making mating noises, but then they're all making they all will make noise if their approached by a predator, right right, So um, and that's something we'll get to in a little bit. But that's important about the certain sort of calls that they make because they're actually pretty specific. I know it sounds when you're hearing them, it just sounds like one big chorus, but there's actually a very distinct noise is

emanating from that chorus. Yeah, and these guys don't sting, they don't bite, no, no, and they're not going to hurt you. They're not going to ruin anything in your yard. Um. If anything, you'll get some nicks in the tree branches from the females when they're laying their eggs. But but no,

they're they're not gonna hurt you. The only thing I did see though, is Sir Richard Attenborough had a little clip that I saw and he was hanging out with the cicada and um he was making yeah, he was, of course, and he was trying to woo it, and he was making little clicks of the finger like that, and it was coming toward him. It hopped down on him and began to think it needed to mate with him.

Oh my goodness. So if you were to do that, you should be prepared for for some sort of mating ritual to happen on your arm, and perhaps even like the little probiosist to start pecking away at your arm. Wow, man, Edinburgh is the best, really, I mean yeah, I loved it when he in the episode of Life and Mammals where he had some hedgehogs come into it in his backyard. But now he's actively wooing cicada's in But I assume

this is Life of Insects. I can't remember where the clip was from, probably, but but yeah, I mean he he just sexes up everything. It's that voice, it's that approach, it's the wooing. Oh yeah. But we should probably talk about these these guys, um where we can find them in the in the United States, mostly in the southeastern United States, in Australia all over. In fact, there are two hundred species alone in Australia. Oh wow, Yeah, those

guys always get some good, good credits. Yeah, and again we talked a little bit about what they look like. But again you've got green bodied ones, black bodied ones, brown and so on and so forth, and in various sizes. To the really amazing form of cicadas. There of course, the periodical cicadas and uh, and we're about to discuss those in a little more detail. You only find those in eastern North America. So sorry Australia, but but we've got the goods on the on the really awesome bugs

this time, you know. Yeah, in the periodical we should talk about that a little bit of the difference between a periodical cicada and the annual cicada. Yes, annuals of course come out every year, or members of the different brute of that particular species will come out every year. So it's like, oh, well, it's guys, these guys from this particular species. I see those guys all the time.

But then there are other uh cicadas, these uh, these periodicals, and they will stay underground for tremendous periods of time, especially when you think of insect because so many insects where live such short lives from the insect world is so hostiles and short lived. It's just staggering that you have cicadas, periodical cicadas with thirteen year life cycles, seventeen year life cycles. Um. There are seven species, uh of periodical cicadas, and there four with thirteen year life cycles

and three with seventeen year life cycles. And we are in the thirteen years, so these guys would have hung out in Georgia at least May three to June. Yeah, So it's I mean, it's just really amazing too to think it's it's this presence that just vanishes for a decade or more, you know. And eighteen years underground, thirteen years underground and um, and then the annuals are what we're hearing right now because it's July, July in August, excuse me, it's August now and uh, and that's what

we're hearing up in the trees. So that's kind of cool. And we really want to talk a little bit more about those seventeen years, thirteen years, one or two years underground, depending on the species. Yeah, it's it's really interesting because they come it's like this brief not even the whole summer, you know, just a very brief, you know, high time of mating in the trees and making lots of noise and uh, giving cats and dogs things to play with.

But but yeah, there's a whole prequel to the cicada life we see underground and the last thirteen or seventeen years for the periodicals um generally it's a lot of root drinking. So it's not exactly is it's it's not nearly as exciting as the tree mating. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

These these little guys they hatch up on the trees right out of their egg, and then they make their way down and they brow under the ground, and they survive underground by sucking xylem, which is sap from tree roots um, as you mentioned, and through the appropriousis, which is like a feeding tube. And again yet you mentioned too.

These are called nymphs, And oddly enough, like a year after year they live underground and somehow and they still don't know why this is or how this is, they detect that this is the year that they need to emerge, and that it's the temperature has risen to degree that it should that would be good for them to go ahead and and emerge from the earth. And that's when, as you mentioned before, they just kind of, you know, start making their way slumbering toward the top of the

tree where they then molt um. And this is really cool too. After they meet, and we'll talk a little bit more about mating two and the mating rituals. The females lay their eggs and they use something called an avipositor, which just sounds like it should have a trade mar it's it's the it's it's in species like wasps and bees, it is of course the stinger, but in these guys it has only one purpose, and that's to lay some eggs.

The original purpose. Yeah, it's kind of like a samurai sword, just making these deep cuts into the branches and then they deposit about between four hundred and six hundred eggs. And that's that's like the main crux of this whole thing. Seventeen years underground just to emerge mate and then you know, lay your eggs and die away. Well, that's that's a genetic mission, you know, to mate, put out these these young in the in the tree and make sure that

they that the brood can continue, you know. Yeah, and you had brought up an interesting question the other day when we were just kind of talking about this over the water cooler. But you know, what, what do if they could talk to us? You know what might they consider themselves? Like they've lived seventeen years underground in this one form and then they become changelings and they inferl those wings and those are the adults, and that's what

we recognize them. Yeah, we recognize the adults as a cicada because well, for one thing, that's what we see. It is the adult form. It's the form that actually mates and reproduces. But for the for the vast majority of their lifespan, they are nymphs. So I mean, in a way, it's like which is the species, which is the which is the form? You know? Yeah, yeah, which is you know, it's just one of those interesting questions, like if they were looking at all the literature online

and they were like, hey, that's not me. Really, that's me for two weeks and then I die. Yeah. It's it's like if somebody was was like, I can't believe everyone's published all these pictures in me on spring break. That's just me on spring break. The rest of the time, I'm a I'm a contract lawyer, but I don't under seen any pictures of me. And you know in a tide going through contracts with red ink. No, you focus

on me in Miami Beach. Yeah, in a in a banana hammock, which that's fine, if you want to wear a bananhammock, that's fine. But anyway, Yes, that is their mission and uh and which brings us again to the whole mating process and the reason why that call, that that um siren like call, at least to the other female psicotas, is so strong and so loud, sometimes up to a hundred and ten decibles. And just to give everybody an idea of what that sounds like, your lawnmower

is ninety deciples. A car horn is a hundred ten decibles. Now think of like thousands of these guys and gals. Actually not the alex of theyn saying all in chorus. It can be deafening, as I'm sure some people know. Yeah, but I think in a really positive way, Like I used to my family used to live out in the middle of nowhere in eastern western Tennessee, and I mean the forest would just buzz with these guys. It was

just I mean, the cicadis. We're also interesting in a number of other ways too, because you could go and pick the little ship shells that they leave behind molt because the molting is it's kind of like it's similar to what crabs go through. It's it's it's it's not like a cocoon process, you know. It's like they leave this outer shell that looks just like them, or it looks just looks just like the nymph form. Yeah, it's like their little sarcophagus. And you can pluck it off

the side of the tree. You can, and you can sort of stick it on your shirt. You can have it crawl over the head of a g I Joe man Um, you know, all sorts of thing that example. Yeah, yeah, well that's just one of the many fun things you can do it. But yeah, it's like they leave all these grotesque litle toys for you to chase your sister with. So I always enjoyed that aspect of it. And then of course cats and dogs have a big time with

the adult version. Yeah, I saw a photo of a Japanese artist who and I think that she was maybe a pop singer or something, um, who had adorned her head with them, and it was actually really cool. Again, the adults are the notes with the shell. Yeah, um, I'm pretty sure it was the shell, but it was like a very buerk move, which I admired. It pretty cool, um, but yeah, I mean we're talking about shells and you're

talking about um. What we're able to see, it really doesn't represent how many are actually out there, because within one anchor you could have one point five million of these little things hanging out again, and that's that's why you've got such a loud cry there. UM. And again you've got the mating sound, which is really important because that call, which is specific to this, to the picular species, right, UM, will attract the female. And you know they're all competing

for that female's attention. And I think it's fascinating that each one is different, and each one was like, hey come over here, hey ladies, um. And they'll actually all sing again in chorus, but they'll also fly together. And sometimes it's thought that the reason why they become so loud to is just to scare off would be predators like birds, who might find it so deafening that they

don't really want to hang around them. Yeah, Like, if you pick one up in your hand, it's gonna start doing a lot of or more of a cat starts playing with one, they're gonna do a lot of loud buzzing. It's just kind of, hey, stay away from me kind of a deal. But that's the limit really of their defensive capabilities. That and just flying away of course, which

they'll try and do as well. Yeah, but in a mo ment after this break, we're going to talk about something called predator satiation, which is this probably one of the coolest sort of like warfare warfare moves you could make as a consect. All right, here we go. This podcast is brought to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is the spark which drives innovation. Join us at curiosity

dot com and explore the answers to life's questions. Okay, we're back. Okay, So again this concept predator satiation, which is which is more like a defense move not an offense. It kind of makes me think of the whole like if somebody. Um, it's kind of like turning the other cheek, you know, well, it's kind of to me. It's like, hey, eat all of my friends here and then don't eat me.

Let me just give you a buffet of us, and then which will ensure that the other you know, nino of us live because there are only certain amount of predators that are going to eat the cicadas, right and so if you survive, you know, a hundred thousand and they all get stuffed, then hey, they don't. They're not really interested in the cicadas anymore. It's a brilliant. They might as well just go and put out a website with free recipes, because they say, like, come on, eat us,

We're delicious. You can't possibly eat all of us. There's so many of us. Dude, they again, we're we're great. And indeed I hear they are delicious. Yeah, I have heard this. Um. They are supposed to be protein rich. They are supposed well, I know they are protein rich. Actually they're they're per pound um on par with red meat. Actually in terms of protein. They're supposed to taste like almonds, and the males because they have a hollow abdomen, they

are reported to taste crunchy like popcorn. And we should talk about the abdomen because it's really important in creating the deafening sound. Yeah. Um, the organs that produce a sound are called timbles, and there are a pair of ribbed membranes at the base of the abdomen. And when a contract that, you get the internal timble muscles, causing timbles to buckle in word, and then it produces a pulsive sound. And then by relaxing these muscles, the timbles

pop back to their original position. And then in some scada species, the pulsive sound is produced as each rib buckles. Cool is that? I mean it's basically like your body is an instrument. I can't do that. I would love to do that well in a way like we kind of use our bodies as an instrument the whole, like you know, seeing from your diaphragm kind of thing. I mean, it's we're using a lot of internal space if we're

seeing properly. Yeah. But if I could pop, you know, a couple of ribs and make a cool sound, you know, to to for my uh would be mates to start dancing towards me. That that would be an amazing skill, and it would it would be I'm picturing just a very kind of slightly grotesque, um like solo music career where you're like, you're like doing your your music. What's your your character name? Oh, acoustic girl, Acoustic girl. You're

doing acoustic girl. And then instead of like a um solo in the middle of it, there's like a rib popping. I love it, right, And I'd be glamouring my audience. And I've been watching them too much True Blood of course with the glamouring reference. But you know what I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, it's very cool stuff. Um, but yeah, I mean that's that's the really neat thing about these creatures. And again this this happens to be the year of eating cicadas,

or at least it seems. There's stuff all over the web of what people have been trying to do in terms of eating cicadas, including a guy in Missouri and this is from Huffington Post. Uh, he's got Sparky's Homemade ice cream and Columbia, Missouri, and he sold out the only batch made by the way of the insect filled dessert within hours of its June one debut. Well, on one hand, you can just say, oh, it's the novelty.

And ice cream is going through that thing with foodies where let's make every possible version of ice cream possible, every weird flavor that is imaginable. So foodies are gonna go nuts for It's like it's made from cicadasing it on and you know, even if it doesn't taste aff good, but um, but then maybe it is. You know. It's like we were. It's like, also, Kata's there here, there's something in us. It's like, we should eat these things.

They're everywhere and they're high in protein. Like well, at some level we recognize that. Well, it's not unusual in the Moysia or Latin America to have us a street food either. Oh yeah, definitely, I mean, oh yeah, we've talked before about eating bugs, in fact, in the Evolution of Food Intro podcasts that we did recently. Uh, they're high in protein, they're out there. We really should be eating more of them. I'm disappointed that you said that

we couldn't eat them during this podcast. Well, I told you I'm a vegetarian. Yeah, but it's a vegetarian like I said, you're gonna eat insects now, and I teld you that's why do not drive a motorcycle, because I don't want to get any nats might the average person every night, true fact, um, they you'll accidentally consume six spiders per night. Why are you doing to all of us out there? We don't want to know that we've been eating bugs. Okay, that's not that's not a real figure.

But but anyway, another interesting thing about these these broods, like why the whole let's go disappear for thirteen seventeen years. It's it's very much like laying low. It's like the guy who steals a bunch of money from the mob and goes to live on the beach in South America for a decade before he dares sort of become a little more active. The idea is that these guys have enemies. But if you dis if your species has a habit of disappearing for nearly two decades, it prevents there from

being as many specialized cicada killers. I mean, there are some predators out there who specialized in eating cicada. Yeah yeah, so they haven't, you know, completely dodged it, but but it it keeps there from being an explosion of cicada predators. Uh. But incidentally, the way they do that, but it's it's kind of amusing the way they do that though. They end up having this this large just glut of cicadas, so everything becomes a cicada predator while the emergency is

going on. So yeah, yeah, but I like that idea of like this witness relocation program to confuse the squirrels. Yeah, schirls are like, what what thirteen years? I didn't you know, I didn't think you were going to come out in thirteen years at school has already did in thirteen years. Yeah, Like squirrels would not be able to to depend on these huge emergencies for their survival. You just have to be a treat when it happens. So there you go,

a treat for squirrels, a treat for humans sometimes. And if you want, if you want more information about the different broods, I highly recommend you check out some of these. Uh. There there's some really cool cicada websites over Cicada Mania that s I C A d A m A n i A dot com is a really good starting point for a lot of this. And they have like these neat charts where they show like the different seventeen year broods, and you know where they are in terms of of

of their emergence. Like, uh, I was looking at it in particular, I think it's a brood eleven. It's a seventeen year brood and it emerged. The emerged in ninety seven and Connecticut. Then they emerge again in nineteen fifty four and they have an emerged center because they weren't extinct. Yeah, and it is sad um. I saw that on the chart and I was like, oh uh. And if you want to check out that that clip of Sir Richard at Borough wooing cicada, you can also go to Cicada

Invasion dot blogspot dot com. They've got a couple of different clips that are really funny and interesting. Yeah, we'll definitely linked to all this stuff on the blog post companies this episode. So get out there, listen to some cicadas, eat some cicadas if you will, and if you if you have tried any recipes for these or have some of that ice cream, contact is let us know how it taste. We'd love to hear about it. You can

find us on Facebook and Twitter. Uh, we'll blow the mind on both of those, and we would we'd love to hear about from you about any of these topics we've covered. Let us know what other topics you want

us to hit. Um we're all years And if you're like me and you feel like cicadas are sort of like our harbingers of summer doom uh signaling the hottest part of the lazy days of summer and angst to follow, you can always send us an email about your thoughts concerning that at Blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuffwork staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.