SOLON, Iowa (KCRG) – Cicadas are beginning to emerge in the Macbride Recreation Area, and researchers are traveling great distances to learn more about these unusual insects.
This year, we are witnessing a double emergence of cicadas. Some that appear every 17 years emerge at the same time as other broods appear on a 13-year cycle. This is the first time this has happened in the last 220 years – when Thomas Jefferson was president.
An expert said this year’s cicada population could have been greatly impacted by the recovery from the 2020 derecho.
The emergence of cicadas in the Macbride Recreation Area is only just beginning, but it has brought people from all over to study the insects.
“They have 1,000 dedicated auditory receptor cells,” said Ben Warren, a professor at the University of Leicester.
Warren came from England to study the auditory neurology of cicadas and teamed up with professor Adam Brown and Rebecca Blessing from Michigan State, who are doing something very different: using these sounds to create a future performance art.
“We’re sort of testing the anthropocentric worldview by looking at cicadas in a different way,” Professor Brown said.
The group spent days listening to insects underground, watching them shed their outer layers and studying why they have such advanced hearing.
“This leaves us perplexed at the moment, but we hope to find out a little more about exactly why they have these structures,” Professor Warren said.
Park officials said the big emergence could begin as early as next week, where millions of these insects would be spread throughout the Macbride Recreation Area, but excitement over this year’s cicada emergence could have change if not for the way the park had managed it. the 2020 derecho.
“The Macbride Recreation Area was severely damaged,” said Lands Director Tamra Elliott.
Elliot said cicadas like these periodical cicadas have been living underground on tree roots for 17 years. If the tree dies or the soil is too compacted, it could kill the cicadas. Elliott’s team took this into account.
“We wanted to make sure we weren’t compacting the soil, because that would have actually killed the cicadas, or other insects, or the plant life that was in the soil,” she said. “We didn’t use any equipment; we went all-in by hand.
Elliot said this meant climbing trees to remove and cut damaged branches by hand. It was hard work, but she said it paid off.
“We’re supposed to have the densest population in our state,” Elliott said.
Allow research like this to take place.
“We haven’t found anything convincing yet, I would say, but they definitely make noise when they crawl,” Warren said.
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