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Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'Truly magical': The 17-year cicada is ready to rock
Woo! Science is a column of science news and newsmakers in Worcester and the region. Got a science news idea? Email Margaret Smith at msmith@ With their bright red eyes and dapper, red-veined wings, the males are truly putting on the ritz, but is it enough to dress to impress? Maybe as Cass Elliot once sang, "Words of love, soft and tender, won't win a girl's heart anymore." Nevertheless, they'll be ready to sing loud, sing proud, and even if humans hear a reedy, frantic cacophony, remember: there's lots of different love languages. We can only be talking about one spectacular insect, and one event: the periodic, 17-year emergence of cicadas. And we as humans are dazzled, delighted, but sometimes confused and maybe a little worried, as we so often are when lots and lots of insects show up all at once. The so-called periodical cicada is emerging now on parts of Cape Cod and the southeastern part of the state, said Tawny Simisky, entomologist with UMass Extension's Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program. Simisky specializes in insects that may damage trees and shrubs, but not to fear as we shall see, cicadas that depend on trees also give back. "There is a lot of anticipation about the periodical cicadas in Massachusetts," said Simisky. Dubbed "Brood XIV, " or "Brood 14," by means of record-keeping parlance, Simisky said, "These are all cicadas in a given geographic area, expected to emerge at the same time." The female cicada lays her eggs in the stems or twigs of trees, by means of an ovipositor, a sharp organ that can slice a hole in which the female can lay her eggs. And so, for 17 years, the young cicadas move from larval to nymph or adolescent phase, before emerging, ready to shed their juvenile skin, and carefully inflating their newfound, grownup wings. Simisky said, "We have folks reporting them coming up from beneath the ground in Eastern Sandwich, Mass., on May 17." This is when so-called exit holes appear in the ground, small and perfectly dime-sized. Where can you find them? "Some areas on Cape Cod, in Barnstable County, and possibly a much smaller area of Plymouth County," Simisky said. "This past Friday, prior to the long weekend, I went out there, and brought my entire family." Simisky returned with photos, including those of newly-emerged cicadas. If it seems like a curious career, spending most of your existence in the juvenile phase, emerging only for a short time in the hopes of finding a mate and passing on that cicada DNA, it puzzles scientists, too, but from a species survival standpoint, they say it makes sense. "We have hundreds of species of cicadas, but only nine species that do this periodicity thing," said Sebastián Vélez, entomologist and biology professor at Worcester State University. "It's all natural selection. There is something called 'stragglers.'" Some may emerge after 12 years, some at 14, some after 13 years, and in the case of the current emergence, 17 years. This may increase the odds of more cicadas surviving long enough to reproduce, and even if many get eaten by birds and other predators. Over time, there will simply be too many for hunters to eat so many of them that it jeopardizes the next generation. Another hypothesis, said Vélez, is that a lengthy period of living beneath the earth is a sensible adaptation from a time when glaciers are believed to have covered much of the region. "Neither of these two ideas are fool proof, and no one has been able to test it," said Vélez. In a time when invasive species have caused great damage to our forests, it's natural to have concerns about an insect that depends on trees. "The only harm they do is lay their eggs in the roots of trees. That weakens the tree. When the first molt comes out of the ground, they have a little straw that punctures a plant ... they tap into that, like a little straw. But, they don't harm crops. They won't kill your trees," said Vélez. And, they're not interested in your vegetable garden. "The nymphs of the periodical cicadas feet on tree roots, but there is no evidence that they negatively impact trees," Jennifer Forman Orth, environmental biologist of the state Department of Agricultural Resources. Orth said there is some evidence that in the long run, the cicadas may benefit trees, due to the nutrient cycling, as well as the shell left behind in the process of reaching the adult stage. And, after the cicada dies, it will enrich the soil, Orth said. Simisky agrees. "Actually, it makes the canopy of trees healthier over time. You can cover immature trees with bird nettings, with openings less than half an inch, and that will keep the adult cicadas from laying eggs in those small trees." Simisky said, "Adults laying eggs on mature, established trees, actually act like a pruning for them," Simisky added, "One side effect of having adult periodical cicadas above ground and in folks' yards, is trees like oak, apple, ash, birch, is the females will be laying their eggs in the small branches of these trees. It will cause some leaves to turn dry or brown. That is a natural process." The sound of the cicada is like a theme song of summer: that long, reedy hum on a hot, drowsy day. But how do they do that? They don't have vocal cords. And when the male sings, how does the female hear? Firstly, that sound is mostly associated with the so-called "dog day" cicadas, the ones that emerge every year, perhaps not as spectacular in appearance as their periodic relatives, but still making their presence known. "The cicadas that folks all across Massachusetts might be more familiar with are the annual 'dog day' cicadas," Simisky said. With dark brown, black or green features, and black eyes, "Their timing is a little bit different," with appearances in July or August. The male periodic cicadas tend to cluster in a group, and all try really, super hard to attract females by way of really loud sounds. Simisky said, "I can see how some people might be intimidated. Their singing can be loud. The cicada in eastern Massachusetts is one of the quieter cicadas. But when all the males are singing, they are quite loud." How do they do that, anyway? Simisky said, "They have organs on their bodies, called tymbals, on the first segment of their abdomen." Contracting these membranes produces the sound. If you've ever told someone, "You're as cute as a bug's ear," maybe it's time to say, "cute as a bug's typana." What? They're membranous organs that both males and females have, found on the underside of their abdomens, and which register sound. So, I'm that person at a party who, when the subject of insects come up, says without reserve, "All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs." Bug is the informal name of everyone in the order, hemiptera, "half wing," basically, the bug club, to which cicadas have membership. By the way, they are edible, but perhaps that's best for a different party. This is maybe a good time to clear the air, as it were: we humans have a peculiar relationship to insects. Unless it's a butterfly, a ladybug (which is really a beetle), or a cute little cricket, something in our primordial brain wants to know: will these things bite, sting or eat me? And if they're plant eaters, are they going to lay waste to our crops? "We do have a natural insect against insects, spiders and snakes, and that makes sense," said Vélez. Because some insects do bite or sting, or carry pathogens, and some insects can devastate crops, and striking a balance is difficult. Simisky said from time to time, someone on social media postulates that those red eyes surely signify a demon in flight. But if anything, the cicada is a vulnerable creature in many ways. Climate change may bring temperature fluctuations that can confuse creatures, cicadas included. Orth said if a building is constructed over a site where cicada nymphs are lying, they may not be able to make that vertical tunnel to the surface, and instead have travel horizontally until they can find an opening. The cicada asks nothing from us, except to live out its life cycle without interference. "Maybe it's unique to me as an entomologist," said Simisky. "I enjoy seeing this insect. It's truly magical that they are only above ground every 17 years. It gives you a sense of the resilience of life on Planet Earth." Every cicada counts. If you find periodic cicadas in your neck of the woods, so to speak, you can reach out to the Department of Agricultural Resources' Brood XIV Project on iNaturalist. This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Woo! Science: Why cicadas will not go quietly
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The wolf at your door might need help to survive as a species
Woo! Science is a column of science news and newsmakers in Worcester and the region. Got a science news idea? Email Margaret Smith at msmith@ They're cute, they're fluffy, they're friend-shaped, for sure. And they walk among us, but, they're not dire wolves. Or are they? Is that even a simple question to answer? They're most certainly not dire wolves in whole genetic cloth, because they've got other stuff in the mix, including from extant wolf species. As the cubs, dubbed Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi, are off romping and playing, enjoying life, their creation is raising a raft of questions, including about animals, and our relationship to them as fellow creatures. William Lynn thinks about these issues quite a lot. Lynn, a research scientist at Clark University's George Perkins Marsh Institute, is also creator of PAN Works, a nonprofit think tank dedicated to people, animals and questions of ethics. The acronym PAN stands for people, animals and nature. When news traveled 'round the world of Dallas-based Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences' bringing back from extinction the canine, which gained a following from the series "Game of Thrones," lots of people wondered if this was fact, or fantasy. "My first thought was skepticism, and that skepticism has borne out," said Lynn. "This is the creation of a transgenic animal that has dire wolf-like characteristics, in its body size and fur coat color." On April 11, the Colossal team working on the project published a preliminary preprint paper, a scholarly or scientific report ahead of peer review for an academic or scientific publication. In that preliminary preprint paper, the team explains that they took paleogenomes from two well-preserved dire wolf specimens. In a press release, the company explained that the DNA came from a dire wolf tooth, and a dire wolf skull. The paper details how the researchers spent more than a year to "decode the dire wolf's evolutionary history," Colossal said in a statement. "We generated high-quality ancient genomes from dire wolves that lived 13,000 and 72,000 years ago. Our analyses show that dire wolves interbred extensively with the lineage that ultimately evolved into gray wolves, suggesting that dire wolves and gray wolves are much more closely related than previously thought." Lynn said, "This is the creation of a transgenic animal that has dire wolf-like characteristics in its body size and fur coat color." The company has defended its work, which touched off a firestorm of debate among scientists and ethicists, not only over whether the cubs are in fact, dire wolves, but about the uncertain road of genetic engineering, and whether trying to bring back a long-extinct species is really a great idea. In Lynn's view, the cubs certainly have some dire wolf information in their genes, but also that of the gray wolf, a species that makes it home in North America, Europe and Asia. "There are very low rates of success of births with embryo transfers and genetic engineering. Of course, that is also true just normally," Lynn said. "Dire wolves and gray wolves diverged from a common ancestor. They may be in the same family, but not in the same genus." Lynn sees the cubs as "gray wolves with genetic materials from dire wolves." The dilemma over the ethics of attempting to call back species that went extinct millennia ago intersects with the present-day crisis of animals and plants that have gone extinct, or are in danger of extinction, largely due to human activity, including habitat destruction and climate change. Another major endeavor by colossal is bringing back the woolly mammoth from extinction. "De-extinction is a fascinating concept, but it is not conservation," Lynn said. The woolly mammoth thundered about for generations until its believed extinction in the Holocene epoch, which started around 11,700 years ago. If the woolly mammoth were to make a comeback with the help of human engineering, Lynn said it probably wouldn't be very happy. "There is no place on the planet woolly mammoths can be set free, to live their lives," Lynn said. For one thing, the world that the woolly mammoth knew is long gone. A species that went extinct more recently might have a fighting chance, Lynn said. "I'm not absolutely against de-extinction," Lynn said. But in order for such a creature to thrive, it needs a habitat in which it can prosper, and there is something more. Lynn said, "It is going to have to learn all over again, knowing how to hunt, who to hunt, where to hunt. Those are things they pass on from generation to generation." What does Lynn think people should understand about animals? A beautiful or sympathetic animal that may turn up again and again in your social media feed, such as the Pallas cat, a small and very plush-looking wild cat native to central Asia, is probably going to capture your heart. "When you see a charismatic animal, you are not being manipulated by that animal per se," Lynn said. "You are realizing a creature who is aware, self-aware and social, that has a personality. That is not so different from you and me." Lynn said, "The other thing I want people to remember is that there are real, live wolves right now, that need your help. If you want to help wolves, there are some things you can do, because they are in danger." Lynn said this includes advocating for legislation to help preserve animal habitat. When musician Aaron Lewis killed coyotes in a contest, spelling out "Trump 2024" with their bodies, he was met with outrage, but Lynn said the gesture is a piece of a larger picture. "It's about political extremism that wants to emphasize that humans are the most important creature on the planet, and wants to upset those who think otherwise." But it's not strictly an issue of left or right-leaning politics, Lynn said. There are people who perhaps mean well by feeding coyotes, raccoons and other predators, which can become a big hit on social media. But Lynn said, "That gets them acclimated to being around humans, and it can create problems. Raccoons, for example, are a reservoir for rabies." In short, living peacefully with our fellow organisms takes some thought, and the answers aren't always clear at first. Putting out bird seed might be a truly helpful and kind gesture, but, "When you are talking about a period of time when you have bird flu, and have a bird feeder and bird bath that spreads disease. It's complicated." This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Woo! Science: Of humans, wolves, and a world of creatures in crisis
