2009).įor cicadaphiles, this was a season to enjoy a truly remarkable event that happens nowhere else on earth except in the eastern Unites States, only a handful of times in a lifetime.
Although established mature trees experienced cicada injury, they are able to shrug off this insult in the long run (Clay et al. Young trees took a beating when female cicadas laid eggs in small branches but trees protected by cicada netting were largely spared from this injury (Ahern et al. Similar changes in microbial communities occur when cicadas enter streams (Menninger et al. As cicadas return to the earth upon death, decomposition of their remains creates a pulse of nutrients to the forest floor boosting microbial biomass, adding nutrients, and enhancing the growth and reproduction of understory plants (Yang 2004). This year, birds produced larger clutches more frequently and nestlings were heavier and enjoyed greater survival (Anderson 1977, Strehl and White 1986). What other legacies did cicadas leave behind? For the natural world they provided a bounty for countless predators. Along neighborhood roadways and sidewalks greasy black patches mark the spots where cicadas found their final resting place beneath the tires of vehicles or shoes of humans. Hungry ants and maggots repurpose cicada protein and return it to the food web. Macabre half cicadas with abdomens transformed into fungal fruiting bodies litter the ground, victims of Massaspora.
Also scattered about are wings and fragmented body parts of cicadas that were not so lucky. Beneath trees and shrubs, the ground is littered with thousands of spent exuviae, the shed skins of cicada nymphs, and the bodies of adult cicadas that survived the onslaught of hungry sparrows, blue jays, hawks, mocking birds, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, dogs, and dozens of other predators. The reason for the hush is immediately apparent. In the waning weeks of June here in the DMV at locations that had formerly been zones of rollicking cicada choruses a few weeks ago, there is now an eerie silence.
CICADA PREDATORS HOW TO
We visited cicadas underground, watched the emergence of cicada nymphs from their subterranean crypts, discovered how male cicadas make noisy and ethereal sounds, learned how to tell the boys from the girls, watched as hungry predators enjoyed the cicada bounty, witnessed mating and oviposition by females, shuddered at their lethal STD, and witnessed havoc wrought upon young trees when females laid their eggs. Over the last three months, we explored the ecology, behavior, and interactions of Brood X periodical cicadas with humans, other animals, and plants in the eastern United States.
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