Author: The Wizard of Oz, Editor: Xu Dewen
For the Middle East of the United States , this year is destined to be a very unusual year, and it is extremely unusual once every 17 years - a super-large underground biological invasion that lasted for several weeks event.
Beginning in late May, a swarm of insects larger than the desert locust , 4.5 times heavier and 10 times larger than the Africa locust plague, will sweep from Delaware, Georgia, to New York , New Jersey , and then to large tracts of land in 15 states such as Michigan and Washington, the average number of 1 acre is 1 million to 2 million. Experts say that the total number will definitely reach several trillion, far from More than the scale of hundreds of billions of locust plagues in Africa in 2019-2020. And its quality, calculated on an average of 9 grams per piece, will reach tens of millions of tons, so much protein will undoubtedly trigger a once-in-17-year food carnival in which all kinds of life are involved.
This kind of insect is called brood X. It is the largest and densest cicada in the 17-year cycle, and it is the insect with the longest lifespan on the earth . Paragon of death - all cicadas have a lifespan of 17 years, live at the same time and die at the same time, uniform and crisp.
Every 17 years, the periodic cicadas burrow out of the ground, climb trees and any surface they can cling to, shed their shells, start flying, mate, lay their eggs , and then all die, and after the next 17 years, Their offspring will repeat the same story over and over again. This year is exactly the time when the 10th generation of Broder cicadas burst out of the ground, invaded and conquered the surface, and the next time will be 17 years later in 2038.
Many people have set up their equipment and started live streaming online, wanting to share this amazing party in the insect world with the world.More people have prepared barbecue and frying facilities, ready to feast, of course, some people have already eaten and enjoyed it.
The earliest record of Bruder's 10th generation cicada was more than 400 years ago in 1715, when the European colonists had just landed in the Americas, and they were all panic-stricken when they saw this situation for the first time. The first governor of Massachusetts described that "innumerable and terrifying giant flies crawled out of the ground." Some people even thought that this was the plague referred to in the Bible, and called these cicadas "red-eyed, black-bodied" locusts.
Now scientists have already proved that these insects and those terrible locusts are two different species. Although they are harmless to humans and animals, the sound made by so many cicadas is very uncomfortable. The jet flies almost at a low altitude. If you stand under a big tree full of cicadas for 30 minutes, the noise of up to 100 decibels can even damage your hearing, and even the siren of the fire truck will be drowned out. In order to avoid public panic, some The local government has issued a cicada warning to remind people to pay attention.
There are more than 3,000 species of cicadas in the world. Most of them only have an underground dormant period of one to several years. Only the 17-year cycle cicada is a species unique to the North American continent. Why these cicadas lived underground for up to 17 years has been scientifically inconclusive.
One possible explanation is that the cicada in 17 has an evolutionary history of more than 5 million years. It may be that during the glacial period in history, there were several warm gaps separated by 17 years, which allowed the cicada to pass through. Cold and survived, while other species were eliminated, which is in line with Darwin's "natural selection" theory of natural evolution.However, in other years, 17-year cycle cicadas also appeared, which made this statement suspicious. The 17-year cycle cicadas have been ranked from the 1st generation of Bruder to the 14th generation, of which the 11th generation has been extinct after 1954. ;13 The annual cycle of cicadas has been ranked from the 19th generation of Bruder to the 23rd generation, of which the 21st generation has become extinct after 1870.
There are already signs that, with the intensification of global warming, more and more northerly latitudes, including even some parts of the southern part of Canada, have also seen the footprints of 17-year-old cicadas. Some Canadians are very excited about this, because they have been envious and jealous of the various "eat cicadas" being staged by Americans for a long time. Many Canadians may have secretly washed their pots and dishes, and prepared in advance for 2038. Cicada dinner.
Why did the cicada live in the dark underground for 17 years in 2017? This may be to concentrate the numbers to do big things, so that the natural enemies who feed on them are at a loss. In 17 years, most of the natural enemies may not live to that age, and their children and grandchildren may forget that this is a delicious food; and if they reappear in a large area in a short period of time, even if they are hunted in large quantities, they can leave enough food. The cicada to complete the population succession. In addition, the 17-year-old cicada has a slow growth rate, a small range of activities, and appears concentrated at the same time, which can make it easier for mating with to breed , and the opportunity for population development is greater.
After the cicada crawls out of the ground, there are only a few weeks of life left. Love, marriage and birth of offspring must all be completed in a short period of time, which makes the time very urgent.What does the
cycle cicada use to attract the opposite sex? Men use power and money to show their charm, lions use power, peacocks use open screens, South America birds of paradise use a gorgeous dance, Galapagos tortoises whose necks are longer, Each male creature has its own unique way of courting, and the 17-year-old cicada has a unique skill - louder than anyone!
The male cicada has a special vocal organ that can vibrate at a frequency of hundreds of times per second, making a sharp and loud sound. Thousands of cicadas gather together, and you can imagine how loud the sound is. One day in 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt was delivering a speech, a sudden cicada overwhelmed his voice, and the speech had to be interrupted by a sudden call of love.
If the female cicada takes a fancy to a male cicada, she will come over and gently touch the male cicada's wings, and the male cicada will immediately switch to another voice to express happiness, and the next thing is no different from other creatures. There are thousands of ways to love, and there is only one constant - the exchange of genetic material. Perhaps, there is an idiom that can better summarize the reproductive behavior of organisms: different paths lead to the same goal.
Generally speaking, in the mating method of most animals, the male will not pay attention to it after a thousand miles, but the mating method of the cicada is maverick. In the male cicada's body, after a circle, it returns to the body of the male cicada. The male cicada is satisfied, pats the butt and walks away. As for building the nest and raising the offspring, it is done by the female alone.
Bi-cicada painstakingly digs a hole in the tree trunk and lays its eggs in it. After a few days, the eggs hatch into nymphs, fall to the ground and burrow into the soil to start the next cycle. A single cicada can lay more than 600 eggs, but about 98% of young cicadas die in various accidents, and only 2% of cicadas can see the sun 17 years later.
After a few weeks, all the cicadas will die, leaving behind nothing but corpses. A long underground search career, going through untold hardships, just for this moment of love carnival, is it worth it? Suppose we human have an average life span of 100 years, according to the cicada lifestyle, then in the first 99 years we have been working hard for the opposite sex, but there is only less than a year left for us to fall in love, you guys Do you think such a day is acceptable?
Fortunately, we humans have evolved a different evolutionary path from other creatures. Assuming that human beings also have a lifespan of 17 years, then it only takes 3 or 4 years to grow, and the next 13 years can be spent in the company of love. This is The happiness that human beings have evolved by themselves, perhaps this is the fundamental reason why human beings can dominate the planet.
