“OU SONT LES CICADAS D’ANTAN?”

“OU SONT LE CICADAS D’ANTAN?” The question is Mary Jane’s. The inundation of cicadas that was predicted for Connecticut has not yet reached our part of Fairfield County. This article on Yahoo by Morgan Gannon says we’re not the only ones on the Eastern Seaboard doing without: “Cicadas are superabundant, but they can be quite localized, and in some places their populations may be getting spottier due to urban development.” This year there are lots of cicadas on Staten Island, but few in Manhattan and Brooklyn. New pavement or the loss of trees can affect the nymphs, who feed on sap from tree roots. The article reports on a study in Illinois in 1956 that estimated that there were an estimated 1.5 million cicadas in a forested area near Chicago. I was living near Chicago then, and the estimate seems plausible.