Laurence Pringle
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Cicadas! Strange and Wonderful
The Story Behind the Book Note: The year 2011 brought a huge cicada emergence: Brood XIX (13-year-cicadas) came out in parts of 15 states! Many people visited the great web site, Cicadamania, which has high praise for this book! Every summer during my childhood in western New York, dog-day cicadas buzzed from high in trees. And every summer, my brother and I searched tree trunks for their dry, hollow nymph bodies. We competed: who could find the most of these strange-looking "husks?" Much later, in 1979, I met another kind of cicada: Brood II of periodical cicadas--one of the amazing populations of insects that have a 17-year life span. In parts of Nyack, New York, a few miles from my home, I found these red-eyed insects everywhere--crawling over the ground and sidewalks, climbing trees and fence posts. Thousands of male cicadas filled the late June days with their loud buzzing. I took some photos, but the great spectacle was soon over. Sadly, I added the number 17 to 1979 and vowed to be ready for the next generation, in 1996. That year I visited Nyack many times. I wanted to get a new colony started near my home, and followed the advice of an entomologist. She suggested that I collect twigs where female cicadas had laid their eggs. With hand clippers I pruned a few trees of these twigs, then scattered them in a protected forest near my home. As I write these words, nymphs that hatched in 1996 are underground in those woods, well-along in their 17-year lives. Seventeen added to 1996 equals 2013. That year, I hope to see if my efforts to transplant cicadas succeeded. Most important, I simply hope to once again celebrate the amazing lives of seventeen-year cicadas. NOTE: The book explains in detail that cicadas are NOT locusts. Many people make that mistake. Locusts are grasshoppers, and can be very destructive to food crops. Cicadas are part of a very different group of insects, and are harmless. Remember, CICADAS ARE NOT LOCUSTS! |
