View Single Post
  #690  
09-01-2012, 06:44 AM
MeechMunchie's Avatar
MeechMunchie
Sgt. Sideburns
 
: Mar 2009
: :noiƚɒɔo⅃
: 9,743
Blog Entries: 83
Rep Power: 32
MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)MeechMunchie  (14320)

I just learned that some species of cicada have hatching cycles of prime numbers of years, so that they don't repeatedly run into predators with more regular cycles.

So, a bug that eats cicadas might have a 6-year cycle. You can't divide 13 by 6, so even if they and the 13-year cicadas hatch at the same time and a swarming, airborne massacre occurs, it won't happen again for 78 years. There's no synchronisation. For animals whose main measurement of time is their own reproductive cycle, the hatching cicadas seem to keep "moving around". It's like generational teleportation.

Maths is GREAT