OUT!! #7: Bugs of the Sun

You can hear them now. They starting coming out about two weeks ago and their ever present whining in the treetops is more commonly noted than their haggard appearance. More persistent than the hungriest mosquito, but more subtle and expected, the cicadas have returned for another summer of heat and humidity. This is only the second week I've worked at camp and I've already found several of these alien bugs in the bushes around Drumlin Farm. With their dark bodies, window pane wings, and hooked legs, they look weird even by bug standards, but are key indicators of summer in Massachusetts for as long as I've been here. The edginess that one feels in the heat is smoothed by the pleasant, but constant drone of these hidden musicians.

Upon first coming to the United States, my parents thought that the houses had electrical problems due to the constant buzzing in the trees around them. However, they were quickly assured that they were nothing more than whirring insects in the trees above. Despite their initial skepticism, they quickly came to accept these buzzing creatures as just another part of the American summer. The true beauty of these creatures is not found in their looks, but instead within their whining music played in those hot summer months. As inviting as a breeze on a humid day, their simple melodies are too precious to live without.

The Japanese, observant to the ways of nature, associate cicadas with rejuvenation and renewal and their renewed presence each summer illustrates this revitalization felt by those upon hearing of the relaxing buzz of the cicadas in the treetops. The life cycle of cicadas compared to many insects is lengthy, but dependent on the presence of trees. Without trees, cicadas are woefully unprepared for life above the soil's surface. Starting out as eggs in slits carved into tree branches by the females, the nymphs hatch out and drop to the ground where they promptly bury themselves into the soil. They remain here for up to 17 years, but often for much shorter periods. After emerging, their alien shells appear on branches, bushes, and any structure they can hold onto. They molt from these shells into their adult forms in a similar fashion to dragonflies and mayflies when they emerge from their watery homes. After climbing into the trees, the males start their buzzing serenade to females, all the while sipping on the sap found the xylem of the trees they sit on. So much like Jimmy Buffet himself "nibbling on sponge cake" and relaxing in the summer sun, cicadas provide the vocal backdrop to the essence of summer in Massachusetts and around the country.