Monday, May 24, 2004

Brood X is Back Every 17 years in my home town, the periodical cicada (Brood X) comes out of the ground, climbs to the tree tops, and sings a loud, buzzing song day and night for about 3 weeks. The males are singing for their mates, and I guess if we only got to do that every 17 years, we'd set up a racket as well. Central New Jersey is a hotspot for this natural event, as you may see from this map in a Time magazine story. The map indicates that Springfield, IL was also once part of the cicada range: probably too much plowing of land destroyed the nests. That 17-year cycle is the longest life span among insects, and there's something a little eerie about it, like a comet or a lunar eclipse. Around Princeton, the cicadas have become a local legend. The University gave Bob Dylan an honorary degree in 1970, but the cicadas nearly drove him out of town before the ceremony. Later he wrote a song, "Day of the Locusts," that told about his experience. See this page for many pictures of the current invasion in Princeton. The cicadas (or locusts) do not bite, they don't eat any leaves, but boy are they LOUD. If you would like to hear the sound, check out the AIFF and MP3 files at a page from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Finally, some folks have been known to eat these critters, calling them "desert shrimp." I found some recipes on the Web but did not want to bug you any further. Actually, eating cicadas can be very dangerous for anyone who has severe food allergies, as a man in Bloomington, IN recently found out. He sauteed a panful in butter and garlic, ate them with fava beans and a white Chianti, and contracted a major case of hives. 3:12:03 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 William Howarth. Last update: 6/3/04; 1:43:53 PM.