This summer's hottest North American bug is without question, the cicada. They've got everything: neon-colored wing veins, bendy-straw-style exoskeletons, an insatiable thirst for tree goo, and after 17 years of napping, they're bursting out of the ground ready to par-tay!
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[This or That: Cicadas or the Beatles]
https://www.science.org/content/article/secret-cicadas-chirp
https://cicadas.uconn.edu/behavior/
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/698019
Algorithm to measure song changes over time
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/500262
https://www.science.org/content/article/computer-charts-evolution-beatles
Test signals in fiber optic cables
https://entomologytoday.org/2023/12/04/broadband-buzz-periodical-cicadas-chorus-measured-fiber-optic-cables/
https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/23/6/3/7425398?login=false
Female flies responding to songs
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4932889/
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/cicadas-are-the-barry-white-of-the-insect-world/
Eroom’s Law principle related to drug development
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/eroom-s-law
https://iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bmb.21617
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eroom%27s_law
[Trivia Question]
Bird hunting caterpillars on emergence and non-emergence years
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7426
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/24148209/cicadas-2024-periodical-brood-eat-ecosystem-impact
[Fact Off]
Brown bears digging up cicada nymphs in Japanese human-planted forests
https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2115/86161
https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/cjz-2020-0222
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4266
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1036064
Cicadas pee in a very mammal-like stream
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-cicadas-power-spray-their-pee/
[Ask the Science Couch]
Cicada sound production using the tymbal, stridulation, or wing impacts
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_4279
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/198/4/1001/6996/The-Role-of-the-Tymbal-in-Cicada-Sound-Production
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118554
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/151/1/41/5697/Do-Cicadas-Radiate-Sound-through-their-Ear-Drums
Patreon bonus: Periodical cicadas emerge after 13 or 17 (prime numbers) years
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2406585
https://www.livescience.com/14238-southern-cicadas-emerge-exact-prime-number-cycles.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690011/
https://cicadas.uconn.edu/
[Butt One More Thing]
Cicada nymph anal liquid is adhesive and mucus-like
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044523104700686
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2rax3CKoj8
