The priming of periodical cicada life cycles.

Full Abstract

Periodical cicadas in the genus Magicicada have unusually long life cycles for insects, with periodicities of either 13 or 17 years. Biologists have explained the evolution of these prime number period lengths in terms of resource limitation, enemy avoidance, hybridization and climate change. Here, I question two aspects of these explanations:
that the origin of the life cycles was associated with Pleistocene ice age events, and that they evolved from shorter life cycles through the lengthening of nymphal stages in annual increments. Instead, I suggest that these life cycles evolved earlier than the Pleistocene and involved an abrupt transition from a nine-year to a 13-year life cycle, driven, in part, by interspecific competition.

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Author information

Author/s: Grant, Peter R (PR);

Affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1003, USA. prgrant(-atsign-)princeton.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Trends in ecology & evolution (Personal edition) (Trends Ecol Evol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2005-Apr; vol 20 (issue 4) : pp 169-74

Dates: Created 2006/05/16; Completed 2007/06/18;

PMID: 16701364, status: PubMed-not-MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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