Cicada Chasers: Meet The Citizen Scientists Mapping The Bugs Of Brood X
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For Dan Mozgai, a New Jersey marketing professional, the perfect vacation involves insects. Lots and lots of insects. They can't be just any random bugs, though. They have to be .
The critters spend almost their whole lives underground, living on sap from tree roots. Then, in the spring of their 13th or 17th year, depending on the type, they tunnel out, synchronously and in huge numbers, for a short adult mating frenzy set to the sonorous sound track of the males' come-hither calls.
"They almost have a personality," Dan Mozgai says of periodical cicadas. Here, he holds a Magicicada cassini.
Dan Mozgai
Mozgai knows the periodical cicadas' siren song well. He's packed up his car at least 10 times and driven nearly 30,000 miles on America's roads, from Maryland to Mississippi, Kansas to Kentucky, to follow it.
"I'll go anywhere," he says.
This year, he's leaving home in search of the insects again. The much-publicized emergence of a group of , which hasn't been seen above ground since 2004, is under way now. Think of it as the Cicada Olympics. Brood X is one of the largest groups of 17-year cicadas, and 15 Eastern US states, as well as Washington, DC, will see throngs of the black-bodied bugs with red eyes.
Some places -- including Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and DC -- already have.
Mozgai, 52, is one of the citizen scientists who regularly dedicate their free time to tracking periodical cicadas. They travel the country, snapping copious photos and meticulously recording data on where particular species show up, the time of day they sing, how they react to predators and what kind of foliage females lay their eggs in. Some come from as far as Japan.
Call them cicada chasers.
Their mapping efforts help scientists better understand the broods' behavior and relationships to one another, and explore larger questions about biodiversity, ecology and climate change. Because periodical cicadas are sensitive to temperature, patterns of different broods and species reflect climatic shifts.
"I like contributing to scientific research," Mozgai says.
It's like an alien invasion, like being in a movie.
Dan Mozgai, citizen scientist
The return of the periodical cicadas typically starts around early to mid-my sugar daddy loves anal sex taylor may and runs through late June. This year, Mozgai is heading to western New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania for an up-close look at his favorite insects crawling out from their subterranean hideouts.
"There's an awesomeness to it because you're surrounded by thousands, maybe millions of these creatures that weren't there the day before," Mozgai says. "It's like an alien invasion, like being in a movie."
It's thought that so many periodical cicadas emerge at once so enough can evade predators and live on to mate and start the cycle all over again. Needless to say, not everyone welcomes the idea of . But even those who would be hard-pressed to deny they're witnessing nature unfold on an awe-inspiring scale.
The cicadas typically begin to come out when soil temperatures 8 inches (20 centimeters) underground reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius). "That seems to be the trigger that causes them all to emerge over a few days or weeks in one area," says Michigan State University entomologist . A warm rain often prompts their appearance, but cool weather in parts of the US this year is in some places.
When they do arrive, it's a , one of the wonders of the insect world.
"It's amazing that they can keep track of such a long period of time so precisely and emerge synchronously at any given location," says , a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut. "They bring out the inner child in many people and recall the excitement of their youth at first seeing them."
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Count Greg Holmes among them. The 59-year-old photojournalist fondly recalls riding his green bike around Joplin, Missouri, as a kid and spotting annual cicadas molting on tree trunks. On warm nights, he'd hear them buzzing and rattling and see their translucent wings backlit by streetlights. They were part of the suburban landscape, as integral to summer as drinking iced lemonade and dashing through sprinklers.
Those early Midwest moments helped shape Holmes into an adventuresome, nature-loving spirit who can rattle off cicada species effortlessly: Magicicada septendecim. Magicicada cassini. Neocicada hieroglyphica.
"If you think bugs are icky, there's probably not anything anyone can say to change your mind," Holmes says. "If you're a citizen scientist, the adult form of a little kid who always had microscopes and telescopes and fossils to look at, cicada research is right up your alley."
Greg Holmes, in Missouri in 2011 tracking Brood XIX, a group of 13-year cicadas.
Greg Holmes
Holmes -- a fan of roadside attractions who writes a lively travel blog under the name -- drives around the country with a magnetic puck stuck to the roof of his Toyota Avalon and a notebook computer, customized with a little numerical keyboard, adhered to the steering wheel. This year, he's road-tripping from his home in Hutchinson, Kansas, to a cicada hot spot in Maryland.
"As you're driving along, when you hear a particular species, there's a numerical code you punch in," he explains. "Because the GPS is hooked up to the computer, it makes a record of where exactly that was."
With three 17-year species making up Brood X, Holmes is entering nine codes -- one for no activity, one for light activity and one for heavy activity. He'll get out his camera and ponder how to best capture the little winged creatures. Sometimes he'll just stop and catch his breath.
It's "never-ending amazement," he says of his cicada adventures. "It doesn't get old."
When Brood X last emerged, George W. Bush was president, the final episode of Friends had just aired, and Mark Zuckerberg had launched Thefacebook, Facebook's precursor, only months before.
"Those who weren't alive 17 years ago or who were too young at the time and can't remember ... are in for quite an experience," says , dean of behavioral and natural sciences at Cincinnati's Mount St. Joseph University and a recognized cicada expert.
This year, Brood X will emerge in Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, DC.