One of the more thrilling aspects of living in Nashville, TN, The South, USA, is the emergence every seventeen years of Magicicada Brood XIV. When the temperature is just right those beautiful babies (those that I haven't accidently disturbed by shovel or trowel) will climb out of the ground, up onto my trees and begin their mating song. It is a beautiful ritual or disturbing, depending on your point of view.
My opininion is decidedly pro-cicada!
5.11.2008
Brood XIV, Nonchalant Magic
One of the more thrilling aspects of living in Nashville, TN, The South, USA, is the emergence every seventeen years of Magicicada Brood XIV. When the temperature is just right those beautiful babies (those that I haven't accidently disturbed by shovel or trowel) will climb out of the ground, up onto my trees and begin their mating song. It is a beautiful ritual or disturbing, depending on your point of view.
My opininion is decidedly pro-cicada!
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6 comments:
hmmm, we're on a different schedule, had 'em just a few years ago.
Brood XIV is really an event here.
Public Works and the D.O.T. must add shifts for highway cleanup!
I will try to make videos this year, as I saw many amusing sights during the last emergence, people hopping about when they landed on them, as if they were bees. You can literally drive around town and see this repeated over and over.
wiki says it's a 13-17 year cycle, and i'd swear i saw them in nashville about 13-14 years ago. but maybe i'm just thinking of the music group, the cicadas.
Ha! Could it be we were in Nashville at the same time, noticing the same insect phenomena? Stranger things have happened⁄
Brood XIV doesn't change, they're seventeen years, but there is another brood that is thirteen years, and the authorities seem confused about them, whether it's a separate 13 year brood, or another 17 year brood mixed in. Both are prime numbers, which enables them to avoid repetition with other broods. What about that!
I remember both most recent broods vividly but have a special place in my heart for the 1991 Brood XIV--the year I was married.
It's all pretty cool, and am looking forward very much to their emergence. I am one enthusiastic cheerleader
auuuuuuughghh!
So, Em, I guess this means you do not want me to post the photo of one between your fingers?
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