The Zen of Cicadas
In the summer of 1803 President Thomas Jefferson concluded the purchase of the Louisiana Purchase from the cash-strapped, strutting little tyrant, Napoleon Bonaparte. Jefferson then sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark off to map, explore and document the flora and fauna of the land which nearly doubled the land area of the newly created United States of America. On that journey through the lands of the Missouri River, the Dakotas and westward to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis and Clark would have heard something that has not been heard in this country again—until this summer. That is the irritating, pervasive, constant, abrasive sound of a rare double hatch of two periodical cicadas. Yup, the last time Brood XIX and Brood XIII cicadas both emerged at the same time was 1803. What is more, a brood is not the same as a species. Different broods can have many species present. But this wonderful year, all species of each brood will be surfacing, singing, and co