Posted on 07/09/2021 1:58:39 AM PDT by Libloather
The Brood X cicadas are done copulating and dying, and now their efforts are bearing fruit.
Over the next month or two, trillions of cicadas will hatch – and they’ll be raining down from the trees.
But they will be an invisible rain, given that they’re smaller than an ant and will be barely noticeable, biologist Dr. John Lill of George Washington University told WUSA-TV. Before that, they will incubate for six weeks inside the woody branches and twigs where they were laid, in order to escape predators in the soil.
“Across their geographic range, trillions will fall out of the trees,” entomologist Samuel Ramsey told WJLA-TV. “They will look like a small ant or termite. When they emerge from the trees many will be eaten by other organisms. Each one of the female cicadas can lay 500-plus eggs considering the number of them that have emerged. In the D.C. area alone, billions of juvenile cicadas will likely hatch this month into next month.”
The cicadas began emerging from the ground in May in 15 states, ready to rock and roll at ear-piercing decibels, wreaking a bit of havoc as they frolicked. Some broke out the recipes and took advantage of the rare culinary opportunity.
Now, with all that wrapped up and the eggs carefully laid inside the ends of branches, the hatching will soon begin. The eggs themselves are no bigger than a few grains of sand, according to DCist. The branches in which they reside are characterized by clusters of dead leaves at the ends, mostly in beech and oak, George Washington University biology professor John Lill told DCist.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
...and that’s how Democrats replicate.
Thanks for posting - I’ve seen the dead branches on the trees - was wondering what it was. Now I know …
There is something mystical, even poetic about trillions of barely visible life forms frantically mating, procreating then immediately dying in unison. A Busby Berkeley kind of departure, coordinated, rhythmic and with a grim kind of enthusiasm.
Someone like Andrew Lloyd Webber should make a musical play about it.
He made cultural history with some of his other work such as Jesus Christ Superstar. Remember all the great songs that came from that work?
—”There is something mystical, even poetic about trillions of barely visible life forms”
Does the plague of locusts come before the plague of frogs and after the boils?
“I’m hearing a dirge leading to a crescendo, settling into a rousing tango!
Maybe a plague of boiling frogs...
—”“I’m hearing a dirge leading to a crescendo, settling into a rousing tango!”
C’mon man!
That should be a Rousing Rendition of Rhapsody in Blue!
Go for the alliteration, man.
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