“Patchy” Cicadas

No cicadas in Philadelphia this year. The Philadelphia Inquirer theorizes that it’s possible that an increase in concrete in areas where cicadas may have laid their eggs in the past 17 years may account for the absence, but an entomologist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia says that the outbreaks of cicadas were just as “patchy” in 1987.

According to the Inquirer article, most of the 2004 cicadas are appearing in the forested areas between Baltimore and the DC Beltway. There are tons of cicadas in the suburbs of Philadelphia and in Chester County, but none in the city itself. Almost no cicadas in Nerw Jersey south of Princeton.

And, of course, still nothing in Washtenaw.

[Link courtesy Cicada Mania.]