A breed of insects — cicadas — spend 17 years living underground.  Then they emerge en masse, breed a new generation, and those babies live underground for 17 years.

It’s the emerging part that’s interesting, because once every seventeen years, certain parts of the midwest get covered with millions of these bugs (often mistakenly referred to as locusts) who eat every bit of vegetation in sight.  We’re talking millions per acre.

And this year — 2007 — marks the beginning/end of a 17 year cycle.  Read more.

Glad I live in the South.