An alien sound?

For the past week or so, there's been an unearthly sound all through the daylight hours. It goes away at night. I thought it might be some sort of strange machinery. My husband thought it could possibly be a car or house alarm. According to the local news coverage, law enforcement officials had received multiple calls from concerned citizens. Some thought the sound might be from the nuclear power plant. Others said it sounded like a U.F.O.

It turns out it's a type of cicada that remain underground for 13 years, then emerge to mate. I actually posted a few pretty decent pix of these critters last week - the post is found here.

According to Clyde Sorenson, an entomology professor at North Carolina State University, "They come out in mass, all at once. This is a really cool natural phenomenon and the only place it happens is in eastern North America." The WRAL news report goes on to report that Sorenson said there can be as many as a million per acre. The males flex little plates on the sides of their abdomens that are covered in ridges of exoskeleton; this is what makes the sound, which serves as a mating call. Looking around the internet a bit, I think I've narrowed down the cicada species to "magicicada" - a charming name.

For those who don't live in eastern North America, I took out my handy dandy camera and shot a video this afternoon. I apologize in advance for the poor focus at the beginning of the video; I promise you it gets better. But believe it or not, the sound on this video is quite muted. We have all the windows in the house fully closed and can still hear the "U.F.O." sound.

Sorenson reassures the citizenry that these cicadas don't bite and aren't harmful to humans. He says folks used to eat them.

I promise they don't spark my appetite!