I always assumed, maybe in error, that the 17 year cycle was not for every bug at the same time. It's not like all cicadas come out one years and then for the next 16 they can't be found. Each year, cicadas hatch. Each one has done it's cycle, but there are others in the ground waiting for thier turn to come out. So there are always cicadas, completing their own life cycles, while under the ground is next year's (and subsequent year's) batch. We hear them every year, just some years they are more plentiful, like Japanese beetles, acorns, anything seasonal and cyclical. And if there are a lot during a year with intense heat spells, they get VERY loud.

Mary (RI)
----- Original Message -----
From: Nail Family
To: letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 11:38 PM
Subject: [LbNA] OT but kind of related Re: Collecting Cicada Stamps


As a boy growing up in North Central Texas, I spent a lot of time
collecting cicadas. The bugs in our area were not the 17 year
variety as far as I know because they were out every year. There
were at least 3 different species that we were aware of and blue
eyed ones were indeed rare but still around occasionally. I used to
catch the emerging bugs at dusk as they made their way up the trees
to hatch and place them on the curtains in my little sister's room
so when she woke up the next morning the hatched adults would buzz
around her room and scare her. My friends and I would also tie
sewing threat onto adults that we would catch and fly them like
model airplanes. The juvenile bugs and adults also made good
fishing bait for catfish in a local river.

Memories of youth.

Nailhead

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "thedoubtfulguests"
wrote:
> Night Owl and I are fascinated by our red eyed, harmless,
chattering
> friends. Their last visit was the year we were married, fondly
> remembered.
>
> We have 3 cicada stamps already: Brood X by Tempus Fugit, 17 Year
> Ick by Firefly, and the great Patapsco gather event stamp by
> SewSooBusy.
>
> Because they may not have obvious names on the listing I would be
> grateful if anyone would reply or write with known Cicada carving
> placements. thedoubtfulguests at yahoo dot com I would be very
> intersted in photos of those too far to travel to (I dont' want to
> start a flame war if anyone objects though). Send privately.
>
> For those of you who color you may be interested to know I stamped
> the 17 Year Ick as a blue eyed rare. Yes, apparently a precious
few
> of the critters have blue eyes.
>
> Scarab of the Doubtful Guests
> "Bugs stick together."
> Try not to think about that.


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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Cicadas in one local area (the 17 yr. ones) tend to nearly all be on the same cycle. Other years, we see a couple around, but for these 2 weeks of this yr., there are millions and won't be again for another 17. Some people 1/2 hour away haven't seen them yet. I'm not sure if they're on a different yr. or a different week. In other words, in the next 20 sq. mile area they may be on a different schedule. But in our area we were all prepared by the news reports for exactly which week they would come out of the ground, and sure enough they stuck to the schedule. Wooded areas around here are extremely thick with them-- noise and shells both. There are other cicadas we hear every summer, the loudest in August. But these sound different. --lunaryakketyact.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mary \(RI\) wrote:
>I always assumed, maybe in error, that the 17 year cycle was not for every
>bug at the same time. It's not like all cicadas come out one years and
>then for the next 16 they can't be found. Each year, cicadas hatch. Each
>one has done it's cycle, but there are others in the ground waiting for
>thier turn to come out. So there are always cicadas, completing their own
>life cycles, while under the ground is next year's (and subsequent year's)
>batch. We hear them every year, just some years they are more plentiful,
>like Japanese beetles, acorns, anything seasonal and cyclical. And if
>there are a lot during a year with intense heat spells, they get VERY loud.

Partly true -- there are 23 different broods that are geographically
dispersed across the US, and each brood does emerge at 17 year intervals.
As a result, a particular region of the country might be home to a couple
of those broods, but they will only see cicadas every couple of years, and
definitely *not* every year.

Here's a nifty chart:
http://www.cicadamania.net/where.html#chart

Doug



|-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-|
Silent Doug, P37 F310 E09 X62
silentdoug@letterboxing.info
http://www.letterboxing.info

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, Silent Doug
wrote:
> Here's a nifty chart:
> http://www.cicadamania.net/where.html#chart
>

Thank You Doug!!! Now I understand 1996. We have Brood II in our
yard.
Aud

Thanks for the story. It was quite enjoyable.

STAR:W+S=DRR


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]