The Fascinating Life of Cicadas and Supporting the Show

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!

SciShow Tangents is on YouTube! Go to www.youtube.com/scishowtangents to check out this episode with the added bonus of seeing our faces! 

Head to www.patreon.com/SciShowTangents to find out how you can help support SciShow Tangents, and see all the cool perks you’ll get in return, like bonus episodes and a monthly newsletter! A big thank you to Patreon subscriber Garth Riley for helping to make the show possible!

And go to https://store.dftba.com/collections/scishow-tangents to buy some great Tangents merch!

Follow us on Twitter @SciShowTangents, where we’ll tweet out topics for upcoming episodes and you can ask the science couch questions! 

While you're at it, check out the Tangents crew on Twitter: Ceri: @ceriley Sam: @im_sam_schultz Hank: @hankgreen

[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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.