cicadas

(Newser) - Cyborg bugs may sound like creatures in a Michael Bay movie, but they could save your life, New Scientist reports. The Pentagon is trying to implant electrodes in crickets and cicadas—which communicate via wingbeats—and program them to “speak” differently around certain chemicals. “The insect itself might...

(Newser) - The Brood XII cicadas have almost finished their every 17 year breeding frenzy.  And what a mess and odor they are leaving in their wake.  Chicago Tribune writer Ted Gregory describes the odor of dead cicadas as "somewhere between rotting raccoon and cut grass."

(Newser) - The Brood XIII cicadas are emerging throughout the Midwest in an every-17-year fit of Darwinian survival.  Scientists theorize that their abundance — they emerge by the millions per acre—is an evolutionary advantage: Because of their numbers, predators (primarily birds, insects and fish) cannot possibly eat all of them....