Welcome to the Not Old Better Show, I'm Paul Vogelsang, and this episode is brought to you by Fields.

Today's episode is part of our science, makes a safer series in our guest today is Dr. Jean Critsky.

We're talking about the 17-year periodical cicadas.

Dr. Jean Critsky is the Dean of Behavioral and Natural Sciences and is a professor in the Department of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University.

Additionally, Dr. Jean Critsky is an entomologist and has authored or edited 10 books and over 250 papers on subjects as diverse as entomology, Egyptology, evolution, history of science, dinosaur biology, insect poetry, and insect mythology.

This is going to be a great interview, and Dr. Critsky's most recent book, The Periodical Cicadas, The Brutex Edition, was published in 2021.

And now Dr. Critsky and his Mount St. Joseph IT team have introduced a fantastic new app to track the cicada for citizen, science, research, the app is called cicada safari.

At this very instant, in our backyards and forests, all across the Eastern United States, one of nature's greatest spectacles is underway.

Every 17 years, millions of cicadas billions even rise from the soil of the Eastern United States to fly, mate, and fill the air with their noisy song.

Although it may lack the epic majesty of the wildebeest migration in the syringetty, or the serene beauty of cherry blossom season in Japan, this event is no less awe-inspiring.

I'm talking about the emergence of the Brutex cicadas. Be aware as you're mowing your lawn outside on a hike, listening to the trees rustle, and please use the cicada safari app to help with the tracking and mapping of these amazing insects.

But be aware, they're out there. We'll talk about the Brutex cicada, the new cicada safari app, cicada sounds, which you can hear now in the background, and all things cicada with Dr. Jean Critsky.

Please join me in welcoming to the Not Old Better Show. Science makes a safer series via internet phone, Dr. Jean Critsky.

Dr. Jean Critsky, welcome to the program. Glad to be here.

It's good to talk to you. This is a special time of year, of course. I remember back in 2004, many of my audience will, 17 years ago, the cicadas, the periodical cicadas are going to be upon us here very, very shortly in Northern Virginia.

I wonder if you could, as an entomologist, tell us about the billions of cicadas that we're going to see, maybe a little bit about their survival instincts, and what the strategy is that they, what is it that cicadas bring to our environment?

And maybe tell us how many Brudes are there?

That's a number of questions there, but we'll start with the last question and then move on from there. There are 15 Brudes, the periodical cicadas, 12, 17-year Brudes, and 3, 13-year Brudes.

And by a Brude, we're talking about a year class, and this is all an arbitrary designation that started back in the 1890s, in 1873, Charles Marlott decided to bring some order to the world of periodical cicadas.

By that time, we had two different Brude systems, and we had another system based on emergence here, and it was really confusing, and they had these charts that would tell you which was which, and it just made it just made it very difficult.

And so he basically said, let's agree on something, that every 17-year scale that came out in 1873, that's Brude 1.

Every 17-year scale that comes out in 1894, that's Brude 2, and numbers 1 through 17 are reserved for 17-year cicadas.

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