INSECTS & PRIME NUMBERS

The Cicada (pronounced Sah-kay-dah) are winged insects that evolved over 1 million years ago when North America was experiencing retreating glaciers.  They spend most of their life underground feeding on the juice of plant roots.  They emerge from the ground, mate and die very quickly.  But they embody startling behavior in that this process of life, mating and death is synchronized in periods of years that are prime numbers.  A prime number is an integer such as 11, 13, 17; a number that has no positive divisors other than 1 & itself.  

Cicada's begin digging exit tunnels in their 13 & 17 years. Dr. Mario Markus of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology located in Dortmund, Germany discovered evolutionary models of interactions between predator and prey such as the cicada.  

At the end of summer many places echo with the sound of the male cicadas loud mating calls. The name cicada means “tree cricket” and their songs are made from a special organ called a tymbal near their trachea.

The song of the cicada is embodied in Mariachi music in Latin American festivals and weddings.  In the famous La Cigarra, the cicada is represented as an insect that sings until its death.

In Aesop’s Fables, the story The Cicada and the Ant the cicada represents a carefree singing insect enjoying  life of song and leisure while the industrious ant is preparing for winter.

Dr. Markus' published work is available here for review:  http://www.mariomarkus.com/hp9.html

Sounds of Cicada's http://www.cicadamania.com/audio/