Posted by Jai Narayan on May 21, 2004, at 14:21:58
***This is not the article in it's entirety but edited by me.
The Orgy in Your Backyard May 20, 2004 By JEFFREY A. LOCKWOOD LARAMIE, Wyo.
The exuberance of new life in spring. Lots of new life. Twenty-two megatons of new life. Like an entomological Halley's comet, every 17 years an astonishing population of periodical cicadas, Brood X, emerges in the greatest regular outpouring of insect life on the planet. In 15 Eastern states, people are experiencing - or, as in New Jersey, starting to experience - an onslaught of cacophonous beasts. For 17 long, virginal years these creatures burrowed in the soil, waiting for their shot at the biggest swingers' club in the annals of ecology. These cicadas offend puritanical sensibilities - so much coitus, noise and chaos. Their celebration of the flesh reminds us that underneath our tidy gardens and parks lurk vestiges of untamed nature. And they are not something to fear or loathe, but to embrace.
A few weeks after their arrival, the cicadas will die, leaving piles of depleted corpses and more than 500 trillion eggs. In a single square mile of forest with the densest populations, there will be as many eggs as there are stars in the Milky Way. This tsunami of life becomes even more incredible when we realize that these creatures have been waiting for this moment since 1987, the year of Donna Rice and Gary Hart, Jessica Hahn and Jim Bakker. It seems that lust was in the air just as the hatching nymphs headed underground for perhaps the longest stint of celibacy in the animal world. Nestled in the earth, creatures counted out 17 years. These events would honor the ways in which we are connected to the earth, recognizing that we are embedded in a marvelous natural world. I nominate the exuberant arrival of the periodical cicadas as the inaugural national event. Rather than a few million of us visiting Yosemite or Yellowstone this summer, a few trillion cicadas will come to visit us. They will remind us that the world is yet to be tamed and that wonder is our birthright. Even staid scientists are entranced by these creatures - why else would the genus have been named Magicicada?
Jeffrey A. Lockwood, a professor of natural sciences and humanities at the University of Wyoming, is the author of
"Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier."
***I am sharing this because I have a deep love of these critters. Also my relationship with my partner started with the same enthusiasm and vigor and we just celebrated out 17th year together.
poster:Jai Narayan
thread:349280
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040517/msgs/349280.html