Cicadas Coming Says Calvin Professor

March 19, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College professor of biology Curt Blankespoor is a self-described "bug
guy." The more technical term is entomologist. But Blankespoor says "bug guy"
works too. And this spring Blankespoor the bug guy is on the look-out for
cicadas. "They'll be coming soon to a state near you," he says with a chuckle,
"including Michigan."

The cicadas that will appear this spring, likely beginning in May, have been
awaiting their moment in the sun for 17 years. They were deposited as larvae
in 1987, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Now, in 2004, they will
awaken in massive numbers.

According to a cicada website at the University of Michigan (see link below)
periodical cicadas belonging to the genus Magicicada are so synchronized
developmentally that they are nearly absent as adults in the 12 or 16 years
between emergences. When they do emerge after their long juvenile periods,
they do so in huge numbers, forming much denser aggregations than those
achieved by most other cicadas.

Cicadas, says Blankespoor, are loud and they're lousy fliers. But, he adds,
they're just a bother, not a serious threat. They don't eat leaves so trees
aren't really in any danger. But they will lay their eggs in small branches,
eggs that eventually often fall to the ground where they lay for 17 years,
until the next emergence in 2021!

See Blankespoor's homepage at
http://www.calvin.edu/~cblankes/

See the University of Michigan page at
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/Michigan_Cicadas/Periodical/Index.html

Contact Blankespoor at 616-526-6498

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Received on Fri Mar 19 09:09:15 2004