Jeeper Creepers

Oh yeah.

While taking Faithful Companion for his evening walk just now, the calls of spring peepers delighted my ears. At this point, they're a faint chirping in the fields along Tollgate Road. In a few weeks, they'll be all but deafening. And, it should prove to be a very noisy summer. Y'see, this year will mark the return of the seventeen year cicada.

Fun Fact: Did you know that hibernating cicada reappear in prime number years? Now, how do insects know what a prime number is? (FYI: A prime number is a number that is divisible only by one and itself. The first are two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, etc. Fermat's Last Theorum, solved a few years ago, had to do with the question of whether or not there exists a last prime number.)

Anyway. How does an insect know what a prime number is? Of course, they don't. But, by re-emerging in prime number years, they outwit any predators that would appear every two years, or three years, or whatever. Thus those wily cicada are keeping one step ahead of their predators.

How cool is that? Not to mention we'll have those cool carapaces littering the ground.

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