This is a wild headline from NPR: "A fungus is turning cicadas into horny zombies — but don’t panic."
"[The fungus] Massospora cicadina has been observed in cicadas in more than half a dozen states — both those belonging to Brood XIII, which emerges every 17 years and is concentrated in Illinois, and of Brood XIX, a 13-year group that is distributed across much of the southeast."
Cicadas are back, but climate change is messing with their body clocks.
CBS News reports: "Cicada watchers used to be able to predict their emergence as easily as astronomers could predict the recent solar eclipse. But that has become more challenging as the cicadas' patterns are changing as warm spring days happen more often."
Four #cicada brooches, Eastern Germanic, c. 380-500 CE
silver, copper alloy, iron
Morgan Library display
“#Cicadas symbolized immortality in the ancient world, perhaps because of their seemingly miraculous regeneration after long periods of dormancy. Cicada brooches were worn by women living along the Danube and on the northern shores of the Black Sea. The Goths converted to Christianity in the period after AD 350, and these brooches may have had connotations of spiritual renewal and rebirth.”
The cicadas have arrived (West suburbs of Chicago). They seem particularly fond of the native plants such as cup plant. Although they are throughout the garden, it's nothing like the pictures I've seen with thousands all over. #Cicadas#cicadas2024#cicadageddon@gardening#insects#bugs
'Periodical #cicadas are unique insects that have a 13-year or a 17-year life cycle, most of which they spend underground. They come to the surface in groups that scientists call broods.
Each brood with its descendants is named in a Roman number. This year, Brood XIX and Brood XIII are emerging together. The last time these particular broods emerged in the same year was two centuries ago in 1803.
...
This is what they sound like'
Good morning all, happy Hump Day! The cicada watch continues, these two were sitting on a leaf outside of my car. They're getting thick enough now to see flying in small swarms in the afternoon. This level of cicadas only happen every 221 years so it's pretty cool to see something like this, kinda like the rare eclipses, but with bugs. 🐛🪲
Have a great Wednesday! Try to make it fun if possible. I like harmless work shenanigans. 🤪
Hello fellow Fediverse travelers, I hope your day is going well. While on break I took a cicada pic, they are increasing daily. 🪲 🐛 When they're all out it will be an impressive sight.
Alas, our cicada friends are starting to complete their life cycles and die off.
Soon their tiny nymphs will hatch from the eggs laid in slits in thin tree branches, drop to the ground, and dig in for their thirteen-year sojourn. By the time they hatch, the generation that spawned them will already be gone.
It’s still one of the natural world’s great wonders, a periodical cicada brood emergence
It's reached the cicada invasion phase that every time I go outside one either hits me in the head or lands on me. And i just found a cicada wing on the bed. Probably from one Watson was munching on... #Cicadas
"Stranger than science fiction." That's how an ecologist describes a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior, turning them into "zombies."
CNN reports on the the fungus Massospora cicadina and how it's impacting some of the cicadas emerging this year: https://flip.it/cxfw5K
#Cicadas rising: A visual guide to #2024’s rare dual appearance
The cicadas are coming. This year is unique, because there are two #broods that are arriving at the same time in the midwestern and southeastern #UnitedStates. Usually it’s just one at a time. CNN has a visual guide for where the cicadas will be and why they’re here now. Basically, one brood emerges every 13 years and the other every 17, and there’s overlap. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/04/us/periodical-cicada-2024-visual-guide-scn-dg/
After trillions of periodical cicadas emerged from years of burrowing in the U.S. last month, scientists are hoping to capitalize on the rare event by studying the effects the insects have on the food chain. Brood XIII and Brood XIX are loudly buzzing across America together for the first time since 1803, making 2024 a year of plentiful food for for snakes, spiders, birds, and even some mammals. But what happens when this all-you-can-eat buffet doesn’t come back next year? The BBC has more.