The last time Brood XIX and Brood XII emerged from underground at the same time, Thomas Jefferson was president
They look a little like cockroaches and have bulging orange eyes, and trillions of them are about to erupt from the earth in much of the midwestern and eastern United States. The emergence of two groups of cicadas will assemble a chorus of the insects not seen in several hundred years, experts say.
The simultaneous appearance of the two cicada broods – known as Brood XIX and Brood XII – is a rare event, not having occurred since 1803, a year when Thomas Jefferson was US president. “It’s really exciting. I’ve been looking forward to this for many years,” said Catherine Dana, an entomologist who specializes in cicadas at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “For the public, it’s going to be a really special experience.”
There are thousands of species of cicadas around the world but only 10 are considered periodical – having a life cycle that involves the juvenile cicadas living underground and feeding on plant sap for years before emerging en masse to the surface.
This year will see Brood XIX, the largest of all periodical cicada groups, emerge after a 13-year dormancy underground at the same time as Brood XII, a smaller group that appears every 17 years. The emergence will occur in spring, as early as this month in some places, and will see trillions of cicadas pop up in as many as 16 states, from Maryland to Oklahoma and from Illinois to Alabama.
I am super excited because I am in the overlap. And I get the eclipse! Real banner year for me.
Pretty interesting getting to see these rare but predictable things coinciding and thinking about how it might have seemed like a series of omens to people in the past.
People of the present too. I hope this doesn’t ramp up some conspiracy cult ala QAnon due to the timing of everything. People are already spreading crazy beliefs over the eclipse.
They are 100% going make allusions to the plagues of Egypt. Then they will blame the transgender people because they wore the “wrong pair” of trousers.
What a time to be a Hoopston Cornjerker!