Latest news with #XIV
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Billions of cicadas are emerging, from Cape Cod to north Georgia – here's how and why we map them
If they're in your area, you'll know it from their loud droning, chirping and buzzing sounds. Cicadas from Brood XIV – one of the largest groups of cicadas that emerge from underground on a 13-year or 17-year cycle – are surfacing in May and June 2025 across 12 states. This large-scale biological event reaches from northern Georgia up into Indiana and Ohio and eastward through the mid-Atlantic, extending as far north as Long Island, N.Y. and Massachusetts. Through mid-June, wooded areas will ring with cicadas' loud mating calls. After mating, each female will lay hundreds of eggs inside small tree branches. Then the adult cicadas will die. When the eggs hatch six weeks later, new cicada nymphs will fall from the trees and burrow back underground, starting the cycle again. We are evolutionary ecologists who study periodical cicadas to understand questions about the natural history, genetics and geographic distribution of life. This work starts with mapping where they appear. We've been doing this for decades, updating a process begun by entomologists in the mid-1800s. Our latest maps are published online and searchable. Mapping the presence of such a noisy species might seem straightforward, but it's actually complex. And accuracy matters because there are seven species of periodical cicadas — four with 13-year life cycles and three with 17-year cycles. Different broods can share boundaries, and some cicadas that emerge this year may be members of broods other than XIV, coming out early or late. A lot of work goes into verifying the data in our maps so that they show the status of these unique insects as accurately as possible. Here's a look at the process, and at how you can contribute: We first started creating our maps on paper by collecting all known specimen records of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas from past scientific studies and museums large and small across the eastern U.S., where these broods are located. For centuries, museum specimens have been the gold standard for documenting the presence of a species. But past standards for labeling specimens were different. Many old museum labels simply noted very approximate locations where specimens were collected. Sometimes they just recorded the city, county or state. Today we collect our records along roads. We listen for species-specific songs and then record the cicada species identity on computers, with their GPS locations. Often we'll stop to examine a patch of forest. If the cicadas are singing, we note whether the chorus is light, moderate, loud or distant. If stormy weather damps down the cicada songs, we look for signs of emergence, such as cast-off skins, adult cicadas on plants, or egg scars on branches. In some regions, such as the U.S. Midwest, roads are arranged on a grid that reflects land survey lines. Networks like these can be ideal for mapping species distributions. Delineating an area that's occupied by a specific cicada brood may be as simple as connecting the dots that represent our positive sightings. In other places, such as Appalachia, roads often follow ridges or valleys and miss many areas. Here, it's harder to infer where cicadas are present between data points, especially when those data points are located on different roads. Drawing a boundary that contains every data point in a survey area usually will end up overstating the area where periodical cicadas are emerging. We intentionally design our maps to be conservative, so we display our information as point data and do not attempt to draw brood boundaries or generalize our data to counties. It's equally important to record absence points – places where no cicadas are present. Otherwise, an area might be blank either because a species is absent or simply because no one looked for cicadas there. We have been verifying periodical cicada records and updating maps since the late 1980s. Our more recent maps include geographic information for data collection points. Where our maps show the presence of cicadas, a senior member of our project has verified that cicadas were present at that place and date. The insects may have been just emerging, singing loudly, or on their way out. Where our maps show the absence of cicadas, that means that one of us or a collaborator visited that location under appropriate conditions and verified that no cicadas were present. Where our maps show no records, we have no information on presence or absence. In recent years, citizen scientists – members of the public collecting data for scientific research – have revolutionized mapping efforts, using apps and the internet. Apps such as iNaturalist and Cicada Safari allow users to submit geolocated photos, sounds and videos with a few clicks. When we receive these records, our colleague Gene Kritsky, an emeritus entomologist at Mount St. Joseph University, vets them with his team. Then they are uploaded to a map on Cicada Safari. Citizen science maps have different biases from those that are created by our expert teams. Members of the public tend to collect their data in areas where residents are familiar with cicadas, there is good internet connectivity and media stories have piqued volunteer reporters' interest. These maps don't show absence records or all localities, especially in sparsely populated areas. Even records supported by sounds or photographs may not be accurate. They may capture 'stragglers' from broods that are not part of the current year's cycle but are emerging one to four years early or late. This phenomenon may become more commonplace in response to changing climates. Warming temperatures create longer growing seasons, which can enable at least some fraction of a periodical cicada population to develop faster and be ready to emerge earlier. For this reason, maps based on citizen science reports are most valuable if the same observers report back from the same locations repeatedly over several weeks. The longer-term presence of periodical cicadas indicates that what's being tallied is a non-straggler population, or a straggler population on its way to permanently shifting the timing of its emergence. Maps are valuable tools for understanding how species fit into their environment, how they interact with other species and how they respond to change. However, it is important to be aware of any map's biases and limitations when interpreting it. Research requires dedication and repetition over many years. Our research suggests that climate warming has resulted in more four-year-early straggling events that are increasingly dense, widespread and likely to leave offspring. The result is a mosaic of broods that makes the jigsaw puzzle of periodical cicada distribution more complicated, but more interesting. Understanding how these four-year shifts are encoded in cicadas' genes is a mystery that remains to be solved. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Chris Simon, University of Connecticut and John Cooley, University of Connecticut Read more: How many types of insects are there in the world? It's OK to mow in May − the best way to help pollinators is by adding native plants The surprising reason why insects circle lights at night: They lose track of the sky Chris Simon has received funding from The National Science Foundation, The National Geographic Society, The Marsden Fund of New Zealand, and the University of Connecticut. John Cooley has received funding in the past from NSF and National Geographic Society. There are no current grants funding this work.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Excavated Mysterious Ruins—and Uncovered an Ancient Roman Fort
Austrian ruins previously known as the Desolate Castle were actually once a Roman bridgehead fort. The site served as a strategic trade crossing for the Danube River as part of the historic Amber Road. This is the first Roman bridgehead fort ever discovered in Austria. Archaeologists solved the mystery of the ruins of the Desolate Castle, determining that the mysterious site on the Danube River shore was once part of a crucial Roman trade route. Located two miles from the Roman legionary fortress of Carnuntum along the Danube River and long known in Austria as 'Odes Schloss' (which translates to the 'Desolate Castle'), the 'castellum'—a Latin word for fortlet or tower—was the subject of recent archaeological work. The well-preserved, nearly nine-foot-tall tower walls had long been thought to be some sort of Roman structure, and the team of experts that confirmed the suspicion have opened a new window in the history of Roman military and trade habits. The site is Austria's only known Roman bridgehead fort. Around 1850, the still-visible walls at the site were dubbed the Desolate Castle, but experts were never sure what the area represented—that is, of course, until now. Experts, according to a translated statement from the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, believe castle construction occurred in two phases. The first was around 170-180 A.D., when Emperor Marcus Aurelius reinforced the Roman border against the Germanic tribes during the Marcomannic Wars. The site's location—on the shore of the Danube River and along the trade route known as the Amber Road, which led from the Baltics via Carnuntum to the Roman Empire—offered a critical trade crossing at the river, which was a natural border of the empire. The second phase of construction, which occurred around 260 A.D., saw a renovation under Emperor Gallienus. Since that time, troop levels manning the fort dropped. During the excavation, archaeologists unearthed stamped bricks from the Roman legion groups XIV and XV, along with small bronze pieces, ceramics, and coins. 'They prove the great strategic importance of Carnuntum within the Roman military system and provide new insights into the military security of the north-south connection,' Eduard Pollhammer, archaeologist and scientific director of Carnuntum, said in a statement. Roman military strategy commonly called for the construction of forts on the opposite side of a border river. From these bases, troops observed both the passage across the river and the surrounding area. The Amber Road would have crossed the Danube at this spot, and having a military presence on the river gave Romans defensive control of comings and goings. Experts believe no physical bridge ever stood at the site—rather, a prominent ferry crossing was the transportation of choice all the way into the 18th century. The Danube River was an important location for Roman border security and control of trade routes. Now, this newly understood castle has been designated part of the Danube Limes, which has been a UNESO World Heritage Site since 2021. 'This impressive find proves the importance of Bernsteinstraße [the Amber Road]—and the Lower Austria region—as an important traffic artery,' Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Lower Austria's governor, said in a statement, 'and as a center in the midst of various dominions, function that Lower Austria still holds today.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Cicadas return in 2025: Which states will see them?
CLARKSBURG, (WBOY) — Although it won't be like 2024's 'cicada-geddon,' some in the U.S. will see another round of the noisy insects again this year. Brood XIV is more spread out than some others, meaning there could be large gaps between the affected areas, much like Brood XIX, which emerged across much of the eastern U.S. in 2024. More Local News This year, portions of 13 states may be impacted by Brood XIV, the second-largest periodical brood of cicadas, according to the University of Connecticut. There are patches of Brood XIV territory in central Pennsylvania; Long Island, New York; and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, according to the University of Connecticut. Areas likely to see cicadas from Brood XIV are in bright green on the map below. Cicadas usually emerge in late spring when the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees — for most states, that's around May or June. After that, they will stick around for about 4-6 weeks. Despite their loud mating songs and intimidating appearance, cicadas are not dangerous. 'All they do is just climb up on trees and pee. That's as much damage as they do,' said Saad Bhamla, a professor at Georgia Tech College of Engineering. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Bhamla clarified that cicada pee is unlike mammalian pee in that it is largely water. 'What's coming out is just water. So you don't have to worry, it isn't like our human pee. It isn't disgusting, it's just water.' If you thought 2024 was impressive, an even bigger adjacent joint emergence will be when the two largest broods, XIX and XIV, come out together in 2076, Cooley said: 'That is the cicada-palooza.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
