Bugs That Count

Along the East Coast of the United States, a cohort of periodical cicadas known as Brood X occupies the prime turf from New York City down to Washington, D.C. Brood Xers are the hip, urban cicadas, the inside-the Beltway cicadas, the media-savvy celebrity cica das. When they emerge from their underground existence every 17 years, they face predatory flocks of science writers and television crews, hungry for a story. This year was a Brood X year. Back in May and June, all along the Metroliner corridor, the air was abuzz with cicada calls, echoed and am plified by the attentive journalists. Then, in just a few weeks, it was all over. The cicadas paired off, fell silent, laid eggs and died. The press moved on to the next sensation. Perhaps a few straggler cicadas showed up days or weeks late, but no one was there to notice, and their prospects can not have been bright. I worry that the same fate may befall an article about cicadas appearing weeks after the great emergence, at the very mo ment when most of us want to hear not another