Sentences with phrase «cicada emergences»

«Our hypothesis is, frankly, hard to believe, even by us, if for no other reason because we know of no mechanism to explain how cicada emergences could be driving a cycle in the birds that is so long — 13 or 17 years,» Koenig says.

During the 2004 cicada emergence in Baltimore, one of the administrators in my graduate biology department told me she was fielding phone calls daily from people with questions about cicadas.

Not exact matches

The calm before the swarm Given the short window of time periodical cicadas have to meet and to mate, synchronous emergence is critical to their reproductive success.

Stories from the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse, N.Y., tell of being rescued from famine by the timely emergence of periodical cicadas.

«The cicadas are probably affecting the bird populations in some way — after all, many bird populations use the cicadas as food during emergence years — but I do not think that the patterns in this study prove that the cicadas are inducing delayed bird - population changes that occur 13 or 17 years after emergence,» Marshall concludes.

Indeed, 12 years after the cicadas» emergence, the birds went into decline, eventually reaching their lowest point in year 17 — just when the cicadas were emerging again.