June 4, 2007
Entomologist's Explanation of Deformed Cicadas
I have seen numerous news reports over the last week about all the deformed cicadas. I asked our entomologist, Phil Nixon to comment.
The following are Phil's comments: There are always many deformed cicadas in these emergences. When insects emerge into adults, they need to get into a vertical position. When periodical cicadas emerge, there are so many individuals that many cicadas cannot climb to vertical surfaces in time to emerge properly, simply because all the space is taken by other cicadas. With other insects, predators quickly eat those that do not emerge properly. With large numbers of cicadas, the predators are overwhelmed, some of the cicadas that don't emerge properly are not eaten, and we are able to see them.
Comments: rwolford@uiuc.edu
Posted by Ron Wolford at 6:37 PM |
