This is a cicada.
Cicadas emerge from the earth every 17 years to mate like crazy, lay their eggs, and die. I personally find their story amazing, and am fascinated by the 17 year cycle in which they exist. I am currently living in Northern Virginia, smack dab in the middle of cicada central and expect to be hearing them for most of the summer, before they are either eaten by animals and human alike (yes, seriously – Google it!).
I actually remember the last time they were around, it doesn’t seem like all that long ago. 17 years seems to go pretty fast these days…and yet. Here’s a few things that were going on 17 years ago:
- Nintendo 64 was released in America
- Dolly, the first cloned sheep debuted.
- Pfizer patented Viagra
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin began working on a search engine that will be called Google.
Puts it in perspective a little, huh?
Imagine the change that we will see in the next 17 years!