Prime number selection of cycles in a predator‐prey model

The fact that some species of cicadas appear every 7, 13, or 17 years and that these periods are prime numbers has been regarded as a coincidence. We found a simple evolutionary predator‐prey model that yields prime‐periodic preys having cycles predominantly around the observed values. An evolutionary game on a spatial array leads to travelling waves reminiscent of those observed in excitable systems. The model marks an encounter of two seemingly unrelated disciplines: biology and number theory. A restriction to the latter, provides an evolutionary generator of arbitrarily large prime numbers.