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Know your Power. 18 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.719 Estimation Annuel bill of twenty six hundred and twenty nine 19 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:55.159 euro new customers only Thurship centis kent off Smart all 20 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:57.799 Day Electricity unitrates in twenty nine percent of gas us. 21 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:01.399 See porcosh Energy dot E for fullties and ceas Oh hey. 22 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:03.359 It's your friend's older sister who taught you to swear 23 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:05.640 in French. Ali ward back with an episode. I have 24 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:08.719 waited most of my life for no exaggeration. When I 25 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:11.159 first came up with ologies as a concept, it was 26 00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:13.280 partly just to drink an expert into talking to me 27 00:01:13.319 --> 00:01:16.159 about cicadas. If this weren't the thirteenth month of a 28 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:19.879 global pandemic, I would have recorded this in an Ohio 29 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.280 backyard instead of over the internet. I would have hitchhiked 30 00:01:23.319 --> 00:01:26.519 there in a bug costume, holding a brood ten or 31 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:28.799 bust sign, and I would have meant it. So this 32 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:32.879 is the spring that bug lovers have waited seventeen years for. 33 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:37.920 But before we cover ourselves in discarded exoskeletons, let's say 34 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:41.480 some thanks to the backbone of the show. Patrons, thank 35 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.120 you so much. You can submit questions to Theologists by 36 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:47.319 joining patreon dot com slash ologies. It costs as little 37 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.400 is twenty five cents an episode, Folks one dollar a month. 38 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:53.920 My heart is not expensive. You can also support the 39 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:57.200 show just by texting links of episodes to your neighbors 40 00:01:57.319 --> 00:01:59.719 or friends or enemies if you'd like, on your podcast 41 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.439 app or you know. You can leave a review if 42 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:05.640 you like. I have read every review ever left, including 43 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:09.479 this one this week by Neutral Viking, who said I 44 00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:13.280 applied to a PhD program because of Ologies. They say. 45 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:15.479 I started listening to Ologies in twenty nineteen, during one 46 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:17.280 of the lowest points of my life. I had never 47 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:19.360 been one for science, but decided to give the podcast 48 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:21.599 a shot after a friend recommended it to me. Maybe 49 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:23.639 it will be a good distraction, I thought. Half a 50 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:26.759 dozen episodes later, I realized how much I actually loved science, 51 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:28.960 but never had it presented in a way that I 52 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.560 connected with because of Ologies. I went back to school 53 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:36.080 one day hope to study volcanos on other planets. Neutral Viking, Hell, yes, 54 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.919 astro volcanology. That episode is all yours. Okay, so leave 55 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:42.000 one see if I read it next week, I dare you. Okay, 56 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:46.759 let's get to cicadology. Cicada in Latin means tree cricket, 57 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.280 but your Appalachian friends may call them jarflies. I just 58 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.759 found out I have only seen a cicada in the 59 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:55.159 wild maybe three times in my life. And each time 60 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:59.280 I crowded around it and gasped and took pictures like 61 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:02.560 an American at the Eiffel Tower. I have never even 62 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:06.680 seen a periodical cicada, the ones that emerge in the 63 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.840 trillions every thirteen or seventeen years in the US, But 64 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:12.039 at their last emergence in two thousand and four, I 65 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:15.520 was so envious. So this year we're getting ahead of 66 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:19.199 their emergence. After the Forest Entomology episode last October, I 67 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:23.080 asked Kadubs the hiking scientist aka doctor Kristen Wickert, for 68 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:26.319 a cicada hookup, and she started an email thread full 69 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:30.439 of my secret internet science crushes, including Dan mosguy who 70 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:34.280 runs cicadamania dot com What's up Dan? And this ologist 71 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:38.800 who is the authority on periodical cicadas. He hails from 72 00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:41.759 North Dakota. He got his bachelor's in biology from Indiana 73 00:03:41.879 --> 00:03:46.240 University and his masters and PhD in entomology from the 74 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:49.479 University of Illinois. He's now a professor and the dean 75 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:53.280 of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount Saint Joseph University 76 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:57.439 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the editor of American Entomologist. He's 77 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:01.879 written multiple bug books and authored scores of papers on insects. 78 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.240 He is the cicada guy, so he typically appears in 79 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:09.120 the news sometimes maybe you've seen him in all khaki 80 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:12.280 field gear and a tan sun hat, and he has 81 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:16.680 a gentle silver beard with kind of a tidy upturned mustache, 82 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:19.279 like a friendly smile. And we hopped on a call 83 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:22.560 to record, and I just screwed it up so bad, 84 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:25.959 Like immediately I dropped off the connection and I could 85 00:04:25.959 --> 00:04:28.839 not log back in, and there were all these tech hiccups. 86 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:33.560 So I texted our wonderful assistant scheduler, Noel Dilworth. I said, hey, 87 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:35.439 I sent him a new link, but he hasn't shown up, 88 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:37.560 but I hope he's not mad. And then I got 89 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:40.560 the reply, I am not distressed, And I had texted 90 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:45.519 him that instead of Noell. So, between wanting to do 91 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:48.319 this episode for seventeen years and then talking to the 92 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:52.800 world expert in it and texting him about him, my 93 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:57.959 level of body sweat was clinically dangerous, but regardless, we 94 00:04:58.000 --> 00:04:59.879 figured it out. We got on the line to ch 95 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:05.600 about life cycles and ghostly remains, cicada chasing, insect cuisine, 96 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.560 the decibel levels of our springtime friends, and what you 97 00:05:09.639 --> 00:05:13.079 should do if you see a cicada, the app Cicada Safari, 98 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:17.360 their cultural and pop cultural influence and what they are 99 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:22.360 doing underground for nearly two decades while we missed them 100 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:28.079 with icon legend and cicadologist doctor Jean Kritsky, who may 101 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:49.639 or may not already be mad at me? Are you 102 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:50.120 mad at me? 103 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:50.639 Why? 104 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:53.040 I felt so mad? 105 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:54.160 I was like, oh. 106 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:59.240 No, maybe he just left forever. I was mortified when 107 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:02.439 I realized that I went to you but secrets out. 108 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.720 I'm a human being, that's all right, it's all my 109 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:08.360 all right, down to business. 110 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:12.279 I'm Jeene Kritzky and I use he him. 111 00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:16.120 And now you are, from what I can understand, a cicadologist. 112 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:17.519 Do you ever call yourself that? 113 00:06:18.079 --> 00:06:21.120 I consider myself an entomologist. Although I work with cicadas, 114 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:23.360 I also do a lot of work with honeybees. 115 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.800 Okay. For more on his bee work, you can start 116 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:28.680 with the Tears of Ray bee Keeping in Ancient Egypt. 117 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:31.079 And while you're buying his book, he has a new 118 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:34.839 book that came out this week. It's called Periodical Cicadas, 119 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.240 the Brood ten Edition and it's thirteen bucks with a paperback. 120 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:41.240 The link is in the show notes treat yourself, get it. 121 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:46.560 He literally wrote the book on these gorgeously loud, mysterious creatures. 122 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:50.240 So can you tell me a little bit about what 123 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:54.800 we can expect this year from the cicada population in 124 00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:55.639 the United States. 125 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:58.439 Sure, this year we're going to experience an emergence of 126 00:06:58.519 --> 00:07:02.680 brood ten. I say brood ten. That's capital B with 127 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:05.160 the Roman numeral for ten, which is an X, and 128 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:06.600 so some people that I want to make a little 129 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:10.600 sexier than it really is brood x. But it's brood ten. 130 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:13.879 And we're already beginning to see signs of it here 131 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:17.600 in the Midwest. People are reporting lots of moles in 132 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:20.279 their yards, mounds from where the moles have been feeding 133 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:22.519 because the cicada nymphs are right now about four to 134 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:26.600 six inches below the surface. And we'll start seeing our 135 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:30.240 first sign of cicadas in late April after a big, 136 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:33.360 heavy rain. Some of the cicado, especially the soil is 137 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:37.199 a very heavy clay soil. They'll actually extend their tunnels 138 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:40.519 above ground, and they're called chimneys or turrets firm similar 139 00:07:40.519 --> 00:07:42.279 to what grayfish will sometimes do. 140 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:47.399 News flash to me that crowdads aka crayfish emerge sometimes 141 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:51.120 out of tall, lumpy turrets they build. And also I 142 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:55.439 googled cicada tunnels and one image taken under a deck 143 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:59.319 look like a damn coral reef, or like big tall 144 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:03.360 stacks of dirty poker chips, or like the tallest birthday 145 00:08:03.399 --> 00:08:06.720 cake ever, out of which a beautiful ghoul pops up 146 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:09.240 to say happy seventeen year's Day, surprise. 147 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:11.680 And they'll crawl way to the top of these things. 148 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.439 They get as large as a twelve inches high, and 149 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:16.800 then as the water seeps down through the soil and 150 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:18.560 gets out of the tunnel, they move back down. But 151 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:21.040 you'll see these little chimneys that'll be under things like 152 00:08:21.079 --> 00:08:26.120 people's decks, or under the large overhang of a roof line, 153 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:29.360 for example, or an outbuilding of some kind. I've even 154 00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:31.639 seen them under pallets. So people but have a wooden 155 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:34.320 palate that's not solid wood but gets nice and super wet, 156 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:35.519 and you lift it up in They' filled with these 157 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:38.080 little chimneys underneath. But that's the first sign that we'll see. 158 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:41.320 That'll be usually this in late April, we could see, 159 00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:43.840 especially in some of the southern States and northern Georgia, 160 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:47.799 for example, we could see a few cicadas emerging around 161 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:50.679 the first of May. They come out of the soil 162 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.600 when the soil temperature reaches sixty four degrees fahrenheit and 163 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.440 then specific well, these are cicadas, you know. They they 164 00:08:57.480 --> 00:08:58.679 got things to do. They got to come out in 165 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:01.320 seventeen years. They keep track of numbers and what have you. 166 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:04.480 Once you hit that temperature for sixty four degrees farenheit 167 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:07.480 and then you have a really nice soaking rain that 168 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:10.240 just sort of saturates everything, then they really pop. I mean, 169 00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:12.759 it's just it's amazing. The highest density I've ever seen 170 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.639 was three hundred and fifty six per square yard. Wow, 171 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:18.600 and that was over the course of about a two 172 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:20.679 week period. They came up. But the first even they 173 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:22.399 come up. By the they come up by the hundreds 174 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:25.000 and thousands. Some of the things I've noticed. I remember 175 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:27.200 the first time I experienced this one evening, I thought 176 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:28.480 it was I thought it had to go in because 177 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:30.080 it's starting to rain, and what it was with the 178 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:32.039 cicada and it was falling from the trees, a bubby 179 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:33.840 landing on the dried leaves, and it just sounded like 180 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:37.399 a heavy rainstorm. I remember seeing a yard where so 181 00:09:37.399 --> 00:09:40.080 many cicades were crawling it blades of grass. The grass 182 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:42.639 looked like it was in a heavy wind, which is 183 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:45.000 sort of like moving around. It's really quite amazing. And 184 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:47.039 then the weirdest one. You know, I do a lot 185 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:49.399 of work in cemeteries, and so I've been in cemeteries. 186 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.840 When these things start crawling out of the ground, it's 187 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:55.480 it's almost like a scene from some kind of a 188 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.360 B fifties movie, horror movie. You will these things, I'm 189 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.840 crawling out of the ground. They are under the ground. 190 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:02.600 They're under the ground. 191 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:06.519 If there was as much larger you could probably have 192 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:08.039 a really good sci fi movie. 193 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:11.159 When they leave those exuvia behind, they look kind of 194 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:12.960 like ghosts that have been frozen. 195 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:16.320 To me, it does. It's a it's a hollow shell 196 00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:18.960 reminder of what was. There was an article I remember 197 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:22.559 reading from the early nineteenth century talking about the only 198 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:24.799 the cicadas have left. I they called them locus at 199 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:28.320 the time. The cicadas have left, and all we see 200 00:10:28.360 --> 00:10:29.799 are their ghostly reminders. 201 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:33.759 Oh that's beautiful. I was going to ask this if 202 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:36.159 it ever kind of gets your goat that they're called 203 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:40.720 locusts because a locust is a type of like grasshopper morph. 204 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:44.279 Right, Yeah, Cicadas are insects have belonged to the sorry 205 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:48.080 to get technical, let we love it, the insect order hemipter, 206 00:10:48.200 --> 00:10:50.960 which are sucking insects like bedbugs and stink bugs and 207 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:55.240 leaf hoppers and aphids and so on. They belong to 208 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:58.240 the suborder that includes the tree hoppers and leaf hoppers 209 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:01.399 what have you. They have sucking mouth parts in the 210 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.840 case of the periodical skates, red eyes, orange veined wings, 211 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.879 black body as adults, whereas locusts, on the other hand, 212 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.720 are essentially a form of grasshopper. It's really interesting the 213 00:11:10.840 --> 00:11:13.679 very first time they were seen, and you know, our 214 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:16.000 history of these things goes back to sixteen thirty four. 215 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.879 Oh dang, that's when William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony, 216 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.240 reported them in his History of the Colony. And he 217 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:25.120 actually may have gotten the date wrong. He actually at 218 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.840 the top of the page wrote sixteen thirty three. And 219 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.240 then what he wrote, which is kind of neat, he 220 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:32.919 wrote to and in the spring before, especially all the 221 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.279 month of May, there was such a great quantity of 222 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:38.360 a great sort of flies, like for bigness to wasps 223 00:11:38.759 --> 00:11:41.600 or bumblebees, which came out of holes in the ground 224 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:44.720 and replenished all the woods, and ate the green things, 225 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:48.320 and made such a constant yelling noise as made all 226 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.080 the woods ring of them and ready to death the hearers. 227 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:55.000 They have not, by the English been heard or seen before. 228 00:11:55.279 --> 00:11:57.080 Orse sits now. The reason I say he had the 229 00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:59.840 date wrong is it turns out sixteen thirty three there 230 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:02.360 is not a brood of cicadas that it would emerge 231 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:05.559 if you go back in time in sixteen thirty three today. 232 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:07.240 So you had to kind of backtrack and figure out 233 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:09.440 okay minus seventeen minus thirteen. 234 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:12.039 Yeah, it but creditors that there were cicadas that should 235 00:12:12.039 --> 00:12:14.879 have emerged the following year in sixteen thirty four. And 236 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:16.840 it turns out he didn't write that passage in that 237 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:18.440 that same year. He did it a few years later, 238 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:20.240 so he might have gotten the notes mixed up or 239 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:22.399 what have you. And so I think he probably got 240 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:24.919 the date wrong. But they called them flies until the 241 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:26.200 early eighteenth century. 242 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:27.440 Well, you know that was going to be one of 243 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:30.159 my questions because they're in Hymiptera, But are there a 244 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:35.320 lot of Jmiptera bugs that have the kind of robust 245 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:36.279 wings that they do. 246 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:38.159 Oh, there are a lot of numbers. A lot of 247 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:40.519 cicadas do it. And then they're the lantern flies. They 248 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:42.559 have large wings as well, so there are some. 249 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:45.080 I was trying so hard to impress him by knowing 250 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:47.919 what a hymiptera is. It means half wing, and I 251 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.480 did not realize cicadas were among them. 252 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:53.159 Okay, and there are some strong flyers, not as strong 253 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:56.639 as dragonflies per se. But some of the Regivians have 254 00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:59.480 our strong flyers as well. Some of us are bumbling 255 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.679 along it. Periodical skadis. If you've seen them, they don't 256 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:04.679 look like they're savvy insects. I mean, they're sort of 257 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:07.399 tumbling around, and I've seen them get picked off by birds. 258 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:10.000 You know. They just seem very clumsy at times. 259 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:14.159 Yeah. Well, what's the difference between a periodical cicada that 260 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:17.919 might come out every seventeen years like breuten or thirteen 261 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.399 years and annual cicadas. 262 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:24.120 They belong to different genera, But if you want to 263 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:25.720 look at it, if you look at them, you'll find 264 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:28.759 that the annual cicadas sometimes some are called dog day 265 00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:30.720 cicadas because they come on the dog days of summer. 266 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:33.840 They're much larger their head is more flat, their eyes 267 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:37.559 or are black, sometimes green. Many of them are black 268 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:41.600 with brown markings, are black with green markings that were camouflaged. 269 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:44.039 And as I say, they're about a half inch to 270 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:45.720 an inch larger than the periodicals. 271 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:48.559 So the annual ones come out in the heat of 272 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:51.879 summer every year, and although they are more chunk, you 273 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:56.440 won't see their camouflaged bods as readily, and you will 274 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:00.399 not witness anything near the numbers of the periodical cicada. 275 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:03.000 The annual ones are just all in all more low. 276 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:06.600 Key and behaviorally, they are much more cryptic. They look 277 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:10.159 like little camouflage insects. And if you stand under a tree, 278 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:13.360 let's say in late August, and hear the annual cicadas 279 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.080 singing away, you can stare at them and stare at 280 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.799 that tree, and you can't see them, because, yeah, their 281 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:22.720 whole survival strategy is totally different. It's to be cryptic. 282 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.279 And when the male starts singing, of course he then 283 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:27.360 is very vulnerable to a bird if the bird can 284 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:30.080 find it, but he's up in the shadows of the tree. 285 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.000 A couple of years ago, my wife and I were 286 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.320 in Greece and we heard cicadas in the trees, and 287 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:36.279 we must have looked for twenty five minutes to find 288 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:38.399 a couple of them. We were less than three feet away, 289 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:40.679 but it was really hard to pick them out. But 290 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:44.159 on the other hand, the periodical skater, they're in your face. Yeah, 291 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:45.960 it's not so much that you need to look for them. 292 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:48.120 It's like where can you look that they're not present 293 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:49.440 to And they come out in big numbers. 294 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:52.480 Is that part of their evolutionary strategy is just a 295 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.200 ton of them at once? How does that work? 296 00:14:55.320 --> 00:15:01.480 Well, it's works well for them. It's called predator satiation, 297 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:03.759 is what we think is happening. They come out in 298 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:06.039 these large numbers, you know, and some of the birds 299 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.039 are major predators of them, but their little crops can't 300 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:12.559 hold many more cicadas. And the analogy I like to 301 00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:15.120 use is imagine walking outside and all of a sudden, 302 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:19.519 you see the whole world is inundated with flying Hershey's kisses. 303 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:24.720 I'm fond of Hershe's kisses. And you tend to eat 304 00:15:24.759 --> 00:15:26.759 and eat and eat and eat and eat these, but 305 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:30.639 eventually you will get tired of them. And in nineteen 306 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:32.960 ninety one and run fourteen emerge, I was over in 307 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.879 a little Marrimuntain area, a little suburb of Cincinnati. It 308 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:37.600 was really kind of cool to watch. I saw this 309 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:39.720 dog the first say. They're coming out, snapping out all 310 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:41.519 over in the yard. It's just going at him. Five 311 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:43.279 days later, go back to see how the emergency is 312 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:45.559 going on at some of my test sites, and that 313 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:49.399 dog is just lying on the porch, paws folded and 314 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:51.080 cicada's walking all around him. 315 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:56.720 Does not carry over it. I'm over these things. 316 00:15:56.919 --> 00:15:58.480 And that's why a lot of people like to collect 317 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:01.399 cicadas in cicada years, but not to use this fish 318 00:16:01.399 --> 00:16:03.320 bait this year, but to use for next year. And 319 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:08.360 they'll freeze them. And I've seen people collect ten five 320 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:11.840 gallon containers of these things and free them for the 321 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:12.759 course of a decade. 322 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.000 So periodical cicadas are in the genus Magicicata, and they 323 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:20.080 make a splash. They are smaller than the annual cicadas, 324 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:23.039 but they have such style in the form of blood 325 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.840 red eyes, and there's billions, maybe trillions of them. In fact, 326 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.840 their genus looks like magic cicada, but Magi actually comes 327 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:34.000 from the Latin for many or just a staggering as load. 328 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:36.919 But not from the word magic, okay, but you will 329 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:42.200 have a magic spring and summer if you live in Delaware, Illinois, Georgia, Indiana, 330 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:46.840 New York, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, 331 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:49.960 West Virginia, Michigan, as well as Washington, DC, and you 332 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:53.600 can witness the party. And if you miss it, you're 333 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.120 going to have to set your calendars for twenty thirty 334 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:59.919 eight to see these hordes of beauties. Now, Breod ten 335 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:03.440 is the largest group of the seventeen year cicadas. They 336 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:06.880 emerged this year, but there are over a dozen seventeen 337 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.680 year broods and a small handful of thirteen year broods. 338 00:17:09.759 --> 00:17:11.519 And I'm going to link on my website to a 339 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.640 US map to see which broods might be in your area. Now, 340 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:17.079 elsewhere in the world, you can always gaze at an 341 00:17:17.079 --> 00:17:19.680 annual cicada. If you have them, you can tell you 342 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:22.000 love it if you can find it. But if you 343 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:24.559 have periodicals in your area, they're hard to miss because 344 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:27.519 they blanket everything. How old were you when you saw 345 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:28.799 your first emergence? 346 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:31.000 I was pretty old. You thought I was born with 347 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:33.519 a cicada year. I'm from North Dakota, so we don't 348 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:34.920 have periodical skaters there. 349 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:38.119 Oh, you were born in a cicada year, though, that's auspicious. 350 00:17:38.200 --> 00:17:40.640 Brewed ten year it was nineteen fifty three, and then 351 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:43.240 in nineteen seventy I was living in northern Illinois, and 352 00:17:43.240 --> 00:17:46.599 of course they have Brewod thirteen, they're not Brood ten. 353 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:49.559 So I missed that one, and then finally in nineteen 354 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:51.680 eighty seven I was able to witness my first brewed 355 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:54.319 ten emergence. However, I did a lot of field work 356 00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:57.440 in nineteen seventy six with Brood twenty three, a thirteen 357 00:17:57.480 --> 00:17:59.680 year cicada that emerged in eastern Illinois. 358 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.680 Had you already been studying them previously or was this 359 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:05.200 kind of like a chance field work assignment and then 360 00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:06.119 you started getting into them? 361 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:10.200 Well, I became an entomologist in part because of periodical cicadas. 362 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:14.319 My undergraduate professor at Indiana University, Frank Young, wonderful man. 363 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:17.599 He's deceased now, but in that second week of that 364 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:21.759 course and he starts talking about these things, and I thought, whoa, yeah, 365 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.119 this is just wild. And he was the cicada specialist 366 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:28.079 for Indiana, and so I knew within two weeks of 367 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:33.920 listening to this man, my life is in bugs. And 368 00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:36.279 so I went to the University of Illinois, where I 369 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:39.519 didn't work on cicadas as my major PhD work, But 370 00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:43.759 my advisor was also Illinois cicada special doctor Lewis Standard 371 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:47.720 and another wonderful guy. Between Lou and Frank, these guys 372 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:53.559 love life. My dad he loved life, but he sold insurance. Yeah, 373 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:56.880 but these guys just loved coming to the office every day, 374 00:18:56.920 --> 00:18:57.960 and I found that infectious. 375 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:00.839 Jean told me about being in coll and taking on 376 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:04.720 a mapping project and researching old letters from eighteen sixty 377 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:07.480 three to track down where in the county the brood 378 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:10.440 may emerge. Back in the eighteen hundreds, scientists had to 379 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:14.480 dispatch grad students on horseback. But in the late nineteen seventies, 380 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:17.160 Jane just cracked open a window and let the wind 381 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:21.160 through his hair, following his bliss to mud tunnels and 382 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:25.400 still wet wings. Yeah, did you get into a Chevy 383 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:28.160 nova and just like ramble around the country looking for 384 00:19:28.279 --> 00:19:29.319 different emergencies. 385 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:32.759 You could say that although it wasn't a Chevy nova, 386 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:35.880 it was a Chavette. 387 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:41.359 Close And can you tell me a little bit about 388 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:44.960 what one of the worlds, if not the world's biggest 389 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.920 authorities on periodical cicadas. What is your job like When 390 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:52.200 people ask you, Oh, nice to meet you, Jane, what 391 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.880 do you do? What are you doing them? 392 00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:58.440 What? Actually? The cicadas usually won't pay the bills. Okay, 393 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:01.599 I'm a dean of Behavioral and Natural Sciences at Mount 394 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:05.200 Saint Joseph University, and I'm the longest serving faculty member there. 395 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.839 But I'm an anemologist who works on that. I'm a 396 00:20:08.839 --> 00:20:12.559 frustrated historian. And so while I was in Illinois, I 397 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:18.359 was able to use the fantastic library resources at Illinois. 398 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:20.680 I think it's now the largest state university library in 399 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:24.960 the US, and I was able to find mimeographed staple 400 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:28.480 papers that had all the USDA records on them. And 401 00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:32.640