WEBVTT

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Chance to win one thousand dollars entered
this nationwide keyword on our website and the

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pills that's bills Enter it now,
Bill Cunningham, the great American Cicadas are

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coming. The cicadas are coming.
I can recall about thirty four years ago

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I had on a relatively young college
professor from Mount Saint Joe, doctor Jen

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Kritsky. But by this point is
authored, are edited ten books, and

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over two hundred and sixty papers on
subjects involving entomology, egyptology, evolution,

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the history of science, dinosaur biology, insect poetry and insect mythology and more.

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Joining you and I now is doctor
Cicada, the man that's forgotten more

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about cicadas. And all of us
know doctor Jean Kritsky more or less retired

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from Mount Saint Joe and doctor Jen
Kritsky. Can you recall about thirty four

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years ago I said to you,
let's get together in seventeen years and seventeen

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years ago I said let's get together
in seventeen years. Now I'm saying to

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you again, can we get together
again in seventeen years. I certainly think

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we can. I'm certainly counting on
it. Well, me too, let's

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talk about the cicadas. Tell us
what is a cicada, where does it

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come from, and what it's its
history. Well, periodical skaters are fucking

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insects that occur only here in the
eastern United States and they come out in

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incredibly large numbers once every seventeen or
in other areas thirteen years on a regular

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interval that we can that we can
predict like the coopses of the sun,

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and try to understand their distribution,
diversity and evolution of the broods. Do

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you have any reason as to why
it only happens in the eastern US.

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Well, the piritical skaters are endemic
to the eastern deciduous forces, and so

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they have cicadas out west, but
they're annual cicada. They come out every

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year in the small numbers. But
these periodical status right now, it looks

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like they evolved. The evolution started
just as the ice sheets were moving south

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before the last ice Age, and
that selected for a longer life cycle,

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and then as they retreated, that
led to the synchronicity of the individual species

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and the evolution of the bruds.
Now you have other interests, but why

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have you decided to become an expert
in cicadas because I think it happens every

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thirteen every seventeen years. Yeah,
a lot of time in between. Why

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does doctor Gene Christie, why did
you focus on cicadas? Well, I

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had two professors and called one undergraduate
Frank Young, who was this Indiana's specialist

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for paritical skaters, and Loose Stantard, who was the specialist for Illinois and

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poitical status. They were my members
for undergraduate and graduate school. But the

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answer to your question is, I'm
a frustrated historian, and when I first

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heard about these bugs, I figured
there's got to be patterns in history,

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and so I use the same tools
that historians use and journalists use in evaluating

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sources, primary sources, secondary sources
together as much historical information about the cicadas

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as possible. And when I finished
my PC, I had over seven thousand

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historic records. Well, now,
cicadas are they harmful? Tony Bender is

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concerned. Last time they were here
many years ago, they got into his

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underneath his shirt. When he's cutting
the grass. They got into his hair.

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He's streaming and shouting running around.
Cicadas are eating me. Cicadas are

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eating me, or they want to
mate with Tony bender. Do the cicadas

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eat anything or do they mate with
humans? Well, Tony first of all,

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doesn't need to worry about it this
year, because this year is a

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wonderful, interesting year because two broods
are coming out simultaneously. But they're going

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to miss Ohio. Oh. So
he's stayed for a year. But next

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year Brood fourteen is going to come
out in Cincinnati, especially on the east

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side of town. So he's got
a year of respite. But for other

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areas, for sixteen other states,
they're going to be seeing these things.

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But no, they don't cause any
disease. They don't bite, they don't

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sting, they do not mate with
us, and they will not carry awhere.

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Your children are small pets. One
might ask why what is their purpose

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and function? If they get together
only every thirteen or seventeen years and their

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underground waiting, what's their purpose?
Well, the purpose of all life is

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to reproduce. But what they do
when they do come out is very beneficial

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to the forest. When they come
out of those holes in the ground,

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that's like a natural aeration. It
allows more water to get down to the

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trees during the hot summer months.
When they are flying around, they're being

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eaten by all sources of predators,
and that provides the predators population to survive

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better this year. When the female
laser eggs, that sometimes causes the branches

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to break, and that's like a
natural pruting. So the flower set next

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year is going to be increased.
And when they die and collect around the

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base of the trees, they rot, they smell, but all their nutrients

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form a nutrient cash surrounding the tree
that they died around, and so that's

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quite beneficial for the eastern deciduous force. How does the cicada know it is

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time to come up? It doesn't
have a clock. How do he's underground?

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How many inches your feet is he
underground? Well, as soon as

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the eggs hatch, they immediately go
under the ministrop of the ground. In

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the underground, they'll free on grassroots
three four inches or so for the first

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few weeks, and then by the
first of the year, after the eggs

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hatch, they'll be between eight and
ten inches of bowl of the ground and

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they'll stay there probably for about eight
years. They'll move up three four inches

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closer to the surface, and they
remain between all five to eight inches below

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the ground for the next until they're
seventeen or thirteen years to pass, and

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they count the years by being able
to detect the fluid flow in the spring

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when water and minerals are moving up
from the xylum tissues up into the branches,

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and the trees are leafing out and
the flowers are being produced. But

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still what we don't know is how
do they remember what year it is.

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That's still a mystery of science.
Well, so take me through the life

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span of a cicada. Let's say
this cicada has been underground now for about

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seventeen years, and he or she
I guess there's two two genders. There's

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not one hundred and five genders?
Are there like two genders? A male

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cicada and a female? And then
how do they tell me the life span

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of a cicada as they begin to
emerge, tell me what their life is

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like when they come up? What
happens? Okay, Well, then they

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come up there, the ones that
are here in Cincinnati, when they emerge

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in the ground, they were already
seventeen years old, and they start coming

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up. But when they emerge,
they emerged as a brown nymph, which

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they use, which they crawl to
the ground. It crawls up the side

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of a tree and they lock their
little tarsal claws in that tree. And

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then the adult cicada emerges from that
immature, nimful skin and then it's all

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white. They expand their wings.
They eventually crawl out of the completely out

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of that nimphule skin. The wings
expand and they turn black, and then

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they walk up to the off of
the tree for the next four or five

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days before they start singing, and
that's when they start flying and what have

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you, and the singing courses to
attract a mate. The male sing the

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females respond by flicking their wings.
After mating, the female will lay her

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eggs and the terminal ends of tree
branches, and then both the male and

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the females die six to weeks six
to ten weeks after the eggs of in

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laid, they hatch and these cute
little three milimere white cicada nymphs drop to

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the soil and within once they hit
the soil. And I've done this though,

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I've actually collected the young and watched
them get underground. They get underground

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within a minute, mostly within thirty
seconds because they're extremely susceptible, are are

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vulnerable to beetles, spiders, and
ants, and so that then they're out

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of sight and as far as we're
concerned, they're out of mind. But

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they're feeding on grass and eventually start
sucking on tree roots for the next seventeen

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or thirteen years, So from start
to finish, as far as from the

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time the male and the female urges, it's about two to three weeks and

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they're dead and their offspring is underground. Is that it Now, that's a

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little longer than that. That takes
two full weeks for all the cicadas to

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get out of the ground, and
the typical adult cicada, if are not

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eaten by predator, will last about
a month. And so that's from start

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for the emergency the last one six
weeks, and that's the entire adult that

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you'll see adults around and the rest
is going to be underground the whole time.

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Do only males sing making that noise? Only males do that? Yes,

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only the male. They have a
structure called a timble, which is

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used to make the sound. The
females don't have a sound producing structure.

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When the male is singing, she
can tell the male she's interested by flicking

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her wings at the right moment during
his mating call. So the male's singing

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maybe Garth Brooks tune. Have you
ever recorded the male singing or the different

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songs being sung by different males?
Or is it the same song like friends

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in Low Places or something like that. It's the same song, but there

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are three variations of it. There's
one that's and you can actually try a

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sort of thing about how to translated
in English. The first mating call,

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which sounds like the word at the
very drop off at the end, that's

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when the female flicks her wings,
and the English equivalent be can I buy

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you a drink? Then then as
he gets closer, you'll start seeing another

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song, and that song is basically
what's your side? And then when mating

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commences, it's the equivalent of saying
my place of yours sounds like ooh,

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I love to love you baby.
You get to that point away you go.

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Does the female mate with one male
or a whole bunch of males?

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She usually mates with. She can
mate more than once, but usually the

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only ones males. On the other
hand, by eighty five set of the

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males will make only once uh ten
percent of eight twice, five percent of

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may three times. Kind of like
women in general, I mean eighty five

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percent have one, ten percent of
two, and five percent of multiples.

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Kind of like the way life is. Uh As far as the when the

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mating takes place, do they make
kind of like animals mate something like that

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or is it something something different?
It's it's well, they are animals,

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and they do have the same they
make the way animals do that if you're

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talking about positioning. In some cases
they're end to end or sometimes they are

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look like the letter B as they
there as their genitalia are locked in place

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and they're just transit. The males
is transferring the sperm to the female,

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which she has a structure inside are
everyone called the sperm of pica, which

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actually nourishes and feeds the sperm so
that when she starts laying her five hundred

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and some on eggs, every one
of them is fertilized, all right,

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and then they've done their duty and
away you go. And uh, as

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far as right now we're here Tuesday
afternoon. At what point will any of

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these broods emerge over the next year
or less? What can we look forward

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to? Well, I wouldn't say
we right now. They're emerging right now

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in the southern US. Breod nineteen
is actually merging in Georgia and Alabama,

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parts of Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and they just started like

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two days ago in southern Missouri.
Here in Cincinnati, in southwest Ohio,

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we have we're surrounded by sall these
states of cicadas. But we'll get Brood

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fourteen next year, so that'll start
probably in early May of twenty twenty five.

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Since you're an Egyptologist, doctor jen
Kritsky, how were the pyramids built?

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I had Zahawe hallrass On about ten
years ago. He has his theories.

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How were the pyramids built? We
know who built them? I saw

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the movie The Ten Commandments Moses,
But how were the pyramids built? Were

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their long ramps half a mile away
that came up? Is there a corner

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that they turned? Was it extra
eat? How were the pyramids built in

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Egypt? Well, mostly of this
now suggests as they were built with ramps,

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they were built by the Egyptians.
They were not built by et and

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extraterrestrials. And we know that the
Great Pyramid for except there's a date on

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it that about twenty years constructed?
Is it the most amazing thing conceivable that

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some I don't know, four thousand
years ago individuals living then could build something

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that large and so well that survived
that long. It's almost extraterrestrial. When

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doctor Jen Kritzky, you have more
answers than I have questions. But seventeen

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years from now will be twenty forty
one. Now, I've had you on

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every seventeen years or so over these
last many decades. Will you promised in

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twenty forty one to come on with
me to do another show on the next

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brute Cicadas? We I'll be in
my late eighties and if I'm kicking,

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I'll be here. You'll be here. Now, are you going to pass

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on your knowledge to some other student
at Mount Saint Joe because someone gave you

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the baton like thirty forty years ago? Who you passing the baton to in

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Mount Saint Joe? Now? Well, I've got several students that are PhDs

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in entoology. I've have a nine
of them now, and they're doing it

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to watch the research on. They've
helped the cascado work. They're working at

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other insects as well. But what
I'm also doing is the creation of an

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online archive all the half including the
half a million photographs I got in twenty

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twenty one when Brew ten emerged,
as well as all my research notes and

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the notes of my advisors and the
other specials. So we're hoping that they'll

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passes on onledge just by students,
but other inquiring minds. Well. Cicadas

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outlive human beings. I think they
will because how long have they been around?

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You said about fifteen thousand years,
because the glacier came down from Ohio

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and looking up from the High River
about a mile straight up of ice,

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and that's been about fifteen thousand years. Is that when their lifespan began?

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Well, it turned out the genetic
information tells us that the first magic cicada,

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the ancestors to the periodical cicadas,
lived about four million years ago.

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Oh and in the last and during
that time is when the large and the

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small species split, and then they
that was about three point ninety five million

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years ago. And then we had
the subsequent splits of the large into two

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species and the smaller and the eventually
two species, and then the last twenty

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thousand years or so we're talking about
that's when the broods evolved and beings.

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Yeah, the human beings that not
emerge about five hundred you know, about

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five hundred thousand years ago. So
cicadas were here before humans and they'll be

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here after we're gone. Well,
yeah, not only the Magisicata definitely was.

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But I had the good fortune of
the colleague of mine at Oregon State

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University to describe a fossil cicadan nymph
that was one hundred and ten million years

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old living during the time I'm of
the dinosaurs. A cicada nymph located in

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Oregon. Well, doctor Jane,
it was not in Orgon. It was

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in Burma, Burma. But my
colleague was in Orgon. A cicaida nymph

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was located in Burma. Well,
I'll tell you what. You have more

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information than any You're the expert on
this, and let's do it again.

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Next time they emerge. Let's do
it again. Maybe you and I can

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kick it again in twenty forty one. Sounds like a plan. I appreciate

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it, Doctor Jean Kritsky amount,
Saint Joe, God bless you, and

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God bless America. Doctor Jan thank
you very much. You're welcome. Good

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talking to you. Let's continue with
more and I think maybe in a year

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00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:43.039
or two or seventeen years from now, doctor Jean Kritsky and I will be

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together once again, either in this
world or the next. All on news

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Radio seven hundred WLW. What Scott's
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you'd missed part of my show,
and I don't know. I suppose there's

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