They want some love.<\/p>\n
Cicadas emerge from the ground, typically from about December to March, to spend the rest of their brief lives trying to mate. The males make their distinctive buzz as they\u2019re desperately seeking some sweet, sweet cicada loving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d says Julia Kasper, Te Papa\u2019s lead curator of invertebrates. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, it\u2019s the sound of summer and still very exotic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s basically the noise of a wedding. In summer, all the adults are emerging from nymphs that live in the soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cicadas spend most of their lives underground. The New Zealand varieties typically live as nymphs for two to three years before shedding their final shells and emerging as adults.<\/p>\n
In some parts of the world, what are called periodical cicadas can spend as long as 17 years underground, such as in the eastern United States, where trillions of them can burst forth in a single season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the males that sing, calling for the females, trying to be the loudest, the coolest, the best and getting, you know, the prettiest girl, and the girls are moving towards the males,\u201d Kasper says.<\/p>\n
Male and female cicadas. In most cicada species, females are larger. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Of course, not everyone adores the cicada\u2019s call.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people love the sound,\u201d says Professor Grant Searchfield, head of the department of audiology at the University of Auckland.<\/p>\n
\u201c[For them it\u2019s] \u2018the sound of summer\u2019, so it\u2019s not bothersome at all, but some people may find the sound annoying or are more sensitive to sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
A cicada\u2019s song can hit more than 80 decibels, studies have found.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s within the range of \u201cdangerous\u201d sounds as defined by the American Academy of Audiology, which lists power tools, concerts and sporting events as hitting the same benchmarks, where damage can be caused with repeated exposure.<\/p>\n
Aircraft can hit more than 120dB during takeoff, while gunshots can reach more than 150dB, well within the range of causing hearing damage.<\/p>\n
How does such a small insect make such a huge sound?<\/p>\n
Cicadas come with a built-in amplifier, a special organ called a tymbal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, and we still know so little about it,\u201d Kasper says.<\/p>\n
The tymbal sits in the insect\u2019s thorax, \u201cand it\u2019s basically a drum. You can see it from the outside, it\u2019s almost like it looks a bit like a window in their side\u201d.<\/p>\n
Many insects, such as crickets, make noise by rubbing body parts together. In the cicada\u2019s case, the tymbal contracts and expands, pulling a ribbed membrane back and forth so quickly that it can sound to humans like a continuous sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so complex it\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Kasper says, noting that studies using slow-motion video reveal how intricate the cicada\u2019s song is. Humans may not be capable of hearing some of the sounds.<\/p>\n
Our ears may not always discern it, but every species of cicada has a different song.<\/p>\n
How many cicadas are there in New Zealand? <\/p>\n
Cicadas are found all around the world, but there are at least 42 distinct species in New Zealand. There\u2019s even a species endemic to Norfolk Island. The most common is the Amphipsalta zelandica, or chorus cicada.<\/p>\n
One species lives high in the mountains of the South Island, which is the world\u2019s only alpine cicada. It can freeze and go dormant.<\/p>\n
Can some years be louder than others?<\/p>\n
The size of each year\u2019s cicada eruption depends on many factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year is kind of different,\u201d Kasper says. \u201cThe rainfall and the dryness and the humidity. Cicadas need moisture and warmth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s too dry, they can\u2019t get out of the soil to emerge, and if there\u2019s too heavy rain, they\u2019re probably washed off and drowned. It needs to be the right mixture.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means the peak cicada noise may be at a different time each year.<\/p>\n
New Zealand has at least 42 cicada species, with noise levels varying yearly due to weather conditions. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Are they the loudest insects in the world?<\/p>\n
Certain cicadas sure are.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re getting sick of hearing them out on the deck this month, take a moment to be happy you\u2019re not living in the habitat of the African cicada, Brevisana brevis, which can hit 106.7dB and has been named the world\u2019s loudest insect by Guinness World Records.<\/p>\n
Can cicadas damage your hearing?<\/p>\n
\u201cPotentially, but unlikely in reality,\u201d Searchfield says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the cicadas were close enough to the ear, and you couldn\u2019t get rid of them \u2013 they were there for hours \u2013 it\u2019s possible. But a cicada that close would normally be flicked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unlikely, but not impossible, that cicadas could cause hearing loss.\u201d Generally, however, the sound is more irritating to some than dangerous.<\/p>\n
Still, try to avoid sticking a cicada directly into your ear at this time of year, although that\u2019s really pretty good advice any time.<\/p>\n
Is there anything I can do to make them quieter?<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought of that question because they\u2019re so lovely,\u201d Kasper says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess you could make your garden very bird-attractive, because birds feed on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Searchfield advises against using earplugs, as they can make you more sensitive to the sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cClose the doors and windows and, if you have air conditioning, turn it up \u2013 there are sound conditioners, used to drown out noisy city sounds, that could be used. I\u2019d suggest trying to think of them as your friendly reminder that the sun\u2019s out.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as they say, all things must pass, and the cicada serenading season will end by about March as the last heartsick males give up the ghost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey only live for two weeks or so [once they come up],\u201d says Kasper. \u201cThey\u2019re only there to mate, and that\u2019s why they sing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until next year, that is, when the buzzy sound of summer will kick off again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They want some love. Cicadas emerge from the ground, typically from about December to March, to spend the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,192,88988,8452,26774,185,702,5165,117,111,43,139,69,1118,17509,1961,2044,4276,379,2963],"class_list":["post-290691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-are","tag-cicadas","tag-dangerous","tag-dirga","tag-is","tag-it","tag-loud","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-so","tag-this","tag-time","tag-why","tag-year","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}