In Cincinnati this May, 17-year periodical cicadas of the Brood X group left thousands of holes in the ground as they emerged 4 years ahead of schedule. The bit that everybody missed was hardly hidden. And thousands of charmed females respond. When periodical cicadas emerge, once every 13 or 17 years, local outdoor restaurants languish.
People threaten to move or go mad.
The din has inspired commentary from the greats of natural history such as Charles Darwin, as well as from just about every local newspaper reporter in search of a spring feature. John Cooley and David Marshall, now at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, may have been lucky. Much of what a cicada scientist does is explain what periodical cicadas don't do. They're not able to sting or bite. They don't kill trees, and, most especially, they're not 7-year locusts.