Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Cicadas

From Wikipedia:

Some species have much longer life cycles, e.g. the Magicicada goes through a 13- or even 17-year life cycle. These long life cycles are an adaptation to predators such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis, as a predator could not regularly fall into synchrony with the cicadas. 13 and 17 are prime numbers, so while a cicada with a 15-year life cycle could be preyed upon by a predator with a 3- or 5-year life cycle, the 13- and 17-year cycles allow them to stop the predators falling into step.

Nature is so cool. Go evolution!

1 comment:

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by renice.] Cicada recipes and preparation on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1866011Yum.