The Cicada Many Things to Many People :: essays papers

The Cicada Many Things to Many PeopleIn this century of rapid scientific discovery, there still exist earthy phenomena with the power to inspire wonder and mystery. The cicala, an worm known since ancient quantify, is iodine such phenomenon. Because scientific knowledge of the cicada contains many gaps, these mysterious insects slew still stimulate our imagination or lead us into confusion. At the present time, the cicada is many things to many people it is a oddity that should be approached scientifically it is a source of superstition and dread it is in like manner little more than an annoying, seasonal inconvenience. The cicada is a stout, black insect intimately an inch in length. Various species of this insect can be found all over North of the America. When the cicada is at rest, its large, transpargonnt, venose go are folded over the top of its body and extend about a quarter of an inch beyond it. Cicada wing veins are and information reddish orange in color, as are i ts look and legs. The front legs are sharp and crablike, allowing the animal to hold tight to the struggle of trees. The species of American cicada most written about by scientists and most wondered about by the general public is known as the hebdomadal cicada. Its scientific name is Magicicada septendecim. This species of cicada appears above ground solely once every seventeen years.What the cicada does underground for most of its seventeen-year vivification span was a mystery until fairly recently. In the early role of this century, a man named C.L. Marlett, who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture, decided to find out. He began burying cicada eggs in his backyard and digging them up sporadically for observation. He soon found out that the cicada begins life as a tiny nymph about six hundredths of an inch in length. A nymph is an immature insect, originally it has fully developedwings or reproductive organs.During their sixteen years and ten and one-half m onths underground, cicada nymphs are nestled against tree roots from which they gently suck the juices. nurture by this root sap, they begin to grow. They shed their skin four times before they reach adult size.Once matured, a cicada does non necessarily leave its underground nursery. All cicadas of the same generation in a region wait for a seventeenth spring before they come creeping forth from the ground as a group.