Oh sure, I have heard about these creatures for years but I met them for the first time in Baltimore in Whitsun 2004. There were zillions of them around and it was difficult not to tread on them. This is one on Ebony's hand.
Now this lot, the northern USA cicada spends 17 years underground before hatching. Then they come out, mate and die. In the south, they are dormant for 13 years and that's really interesting for both 13 and 17 are prime numbers. Think about it. If their life cycle was not a prime number, for example 8 years, then their predators who may have life cycles of 2, 4 or 8 years would have a lot of opportunities to have a go at them. So the 2 yo predators only get to attack the 17 yo every 34 years. Neat I thought.
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