We walked in with the biologists at Zikada, so you don’t have to do that

Remotely the trunk of the great maple appears to be plastered with brown leaves, or it may be a bad case of acne. But the approach and blows form a caravan of living creatures, all making every effort to climb to safety in the upper branches.

They are cigarettes that have just come out of an underground exile, bent over the last 17 years, absorbing sweat from the tree roots as they reach a foot below the ground. Today is their big day, their “creation,” as entomologists call it. After a cold spring, the soil temperature here in the Silver Spring neighborhood of Maryland has reached 64 degrees: go time. The sun has risen and the nymphs of the minors have come out of the holes in search of the nearest tall object – a tree, a bush or a piece of patio furniture -. They then wait for their bodies to strengthen and become mini-hulks in the insect world. Within hours, the cigarettes had shed their brown shells and turned from young to adult. Their bodies darken, their eyes bleed, they develop strong copper wings and a desire to cover themselves as quickly as possible.

Throughout the 15 eastern states, the same ritual is underway. This week, billions of cicadas are emerging from Brood X — a population separated by three species (two genera). Magicicada) that come out of the ground at the same time. There are three 17-year-old cicadas and 13-year-old cicadas in the eastern United States, each of which appears in different years. But Brood X (entomologists use Roman numerals) is one of the largest and lives closest to large population centers, such as the region. Washington, DC and New Jersey, and extends westward toward Ohio and Indiana.

Zoe Getman-Pickering, a postdoctoral scientist At George Washington University, he is one of the researchers in the six-week outbreak that is taking advantage of the weed to get as much information as possible about how weird insect life, unusual intestinal microbes, and massive population growth are growing. through eastern forest and suburban ecosystems. Dressed in comfy jeans and a mountain khaki shirt, dressed in a blackboard and binoculars, Getman-Pickering walks through the nature reserves of the area leading up thousands of stairs.

He has empathy for their struggles. Like humans after 19 years of Covid — they are getting used to being in public as well. “After the pandemic, it’s something that a lot of people can relate to,” says Getman-Pickering. “They’re flashing sunlight, all clumsy and awkward, trying to get back into the world.”

She picks up a newly created adult and checks her abdomen to see if it is male or female. Females have a dotted “obipositor” for laying eggs; otherwise, they are all the same.

Getman-Pickering and Grace Soltis, graduates of the University of Maryland, are not only interested in insects, they are also recording the types of birds that feed on this unexpected bonanza. “What we’re anticipating is that when all the cigarettes come out, there’s a lot of food that’s readily available to the birds,” says Getman-Pickering. “Why do all the work of finding tiny caterpillars when you can eat tree shrimp for free?”

According to him, the bird population is increasing as it moves from the prey of caterpillars and other small insects to this new buffet. Having more food for the birds means a better chance of breeding, and later more bird children.

Actually, the cigarettes start to rise on the big maple and a couple of woodpeckers pass in less than an hour, several mossy trees and a crow enter and the smorgasbord festivities begin. And they’re not just birds, says Getman-Pickering. “All animals eat cigarettes unless rats and dogs are kept under internal control,” he says. People too.

Getman-Pickering provides a daily forest area in another rural area of ​​suburban Maryland and includes an uncontrolled site near Chesapeake Bay. Comparing bird and caterpillar populations, he hopes to sketch out ecological patterns that can last a long time after the few weeks that cicadas will be around. “When birds stop eating caterpillars,” says Getman-Pickering, “the caterpillar populations will explode and cause more damage to the trees. We expect the parasite wasp population to also increase. They eat the caterpillar from the inside, eventually preserving key organs.”