Caught Up In The Reverie

The last week has brought an unmistakable, at times deafening hum to the woods behind our house. They’re baaaaccccckkkkkkk… For the first time in 13 years, the cicadas of Brood XIX (“The Great Southern Brood”) have emerged from the ground.   

Cicadas have a bizarre life cycle. Bizarre even by insect standards, and insects have some pretty wild and wide ranging life cycles. Cicadas spend the overwhelming majority of their life underground, burrowed into deep holes. They burrow as larvae, find a solid and safe place to rest and then they just… wait. They lie fallow until they emerge as adults and focus almost exclusively on eating and mating until they lay a bunch of fertilized eggs. After securing their genetic future, the adults fall to the ground dead.. Their eggs become larvae which almost immediately start digging and… wait until they are ready to climb out of the ground as adults and do the whole thing again.