The synchronized emergence or periodic cicadas is an evolutionary strategy. But some scientists think global warming could be affecting the insects' cycles.synchronized emergence is an evolutionary strategy, scientists say. Birds, raccoons and other predators can eat only so many of them. So the more“They have the safety-in-numbers strategy,” said Chris Simon, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut who studies the insects.
Periodical cicadas fall into two categories of brood, or age class: those that take 13 years to emerge and those that take 17 years. Temperature seems to trigger when they pop out, but how exactly they set their internal clocks or communicate when to come up from the ground together remains somewhat mysterious.
John Cooley, a University of Connecticut cicada researcher who maps cicada broods, said he expects the bugs’ range to shift northward as the climate warms and the plant species they prefer shift north.“If you look at the data, we definitely have more reports of straggling now than we ever did in the past,” Cooley said. “That could be because there’s more straggling than there was in the past or because we have the internet and if you see this strange bug in the yard, you can send it in.
Periodical cicadas, which are harmless to people, are distributed across the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. Unlike annual cicada species, which reappear every year, the emergence of cicadas like the ones popping out now in the Southeast is a special event. The U.S. is home to 12 broods that emerge on 17-year cycles and three broods that have 13-year cycles.
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