It's a symphony.

Hi, my name is Samuel Ramsay.

I'm an entomologist with the United States Department of Agriculture?

A steady insects.

Last night I spent a good portion of my night watching these cicadas beginning to emerge, watching them as they climbed up fence posts and trees.

It was a magical experience, which I couldn't stop myself from grabbing a few per cicadas are the loudest insects on the planet.

And according to some estimates this summer's brood 10, which has lived in the soil for 17 long years, could number in the trillions.

Oh yeah, like the national debt kind of trillion.

That means that in some places there are as many as 1.5 million of them per acre, crawling out of the dirt and up into the trees where they shed their exoskeleton and begin to emit a piercing sound that seems to undulate.

So we are listening to a chorus of male cicadas.

So in order to actually amplify the sound that they're producing.

Cicadas will chorus together.

They will gather together and create a very loud song that they're presenting to the female cicadas of the world.

They are not just producing one sort of noise.

It's an intricate sound.

So this is the sound of one cicada.

They can be pretty loud.

They're arranging in some ways from traffic noise.

Two pretty loud garbage disposal.

It is not a quiet insect.

So how does such a big sound come out of something so small.

The answer lies in the cicadas, unique anatomy.

This guy right here.

If you see that white patch right there, that is the cicadas temple organ.

It is what's capable of making that really loud noise?

And there's one on each side of the cicadas body.

They're generating the sound unlike the ways that most insects generate noise.

We think of noisy insects and we think of crickets, we think of Katie did.

But when we hear the sound generated by a cicada, it's not generated by rubbing two parts of its body together.

They're pulling on a section of their body that is arranged like a musical instrument.

And as they pull in the temple, it buckles these ribs on the sides of their body that makes this very resonant loud sound.

In addition to that, the back into their body, like a lot of musical instruments is hollow.

Such that it can amplify this noise and then their wings allows them to direct it in different directions.

So they are pretty much a musical instrument.

All their own something that immediately strikes me as really unique about it is that it has a sound in a lot of ways similar to something called Tuvan throat singing.

And it's a type of singing that that has some religious significance.

If I were to give you a very amateurish example sounds something like it's a type of singing.

That that has some religious significance.

Person is able to, through humming and vocalizing create sort of two sets of notes playing at the same time.

Other insects, like bees don't typically use their sounds to communicate over large distances.

Bees will create these vibrating noise is that they can use to communicate with other bees to communicate with organisms that they're attempting to ward off.

But those are creatures that are pretty close to their colonies.

So there's no need for those sounds to be very loud.

Their blood red eyes and piercing shriek might inspire fear in some, but not dr Sami Ramsey, who knows that the song of the Siqueira is a key component to their survival.

This Cicada is not capable of harming me in any way.

The only defense that they have is that their numbers are so large that nothing could possibly eat all of them.

And so when they get into those trees it is evolutionarily favored that they make as much noise that they make the loudest sound possible.

Because if the loud sounds are going to attract the females will they want to make sure that they can attract a female as quickly as possible before something comes along and attempts to eat them.

They have the hugest biological imperative to mate to find someone who is going to be interested in this sound.

And so in order to do that, they may have to really create a rather vibrant, very loud noise that can attract females from quite a distance to ensure That they haven't spent 17 years below ground for nothing.

The Cicadas have to typical songs.

One of the songs of course, is the one that we've been discussing as this reproductive imperative for them to attract the attention of females.

So with the Cicadas, it's all about this song that they're able to produce.

And the males that are able to produce a louder song likely have larger muscles are potentially bigger males and that may mean that they are better at acquiring nutrition and thus have genes that would make them a better father of the offspring of that female.

The males are doing this all together and then they're listening at the same time to see if they can potentially here the responsive clicks that the female will make if she is interested in us.

Now the female makes a sound like this sweet.

It's not unless you get a female cicada very close to you that you'll be able to hear somewhat subtle clicking noise that they make.

That noise is not supposed to be incredibly resonant.

It's more of a directed noise to get the attention of a male that's close by and they get so excited about this because of all the time that they have been waiting for this, that they will go after anything.

And I mean anything that makes a rhythmic clicking noise and so that's power tools that people are using outside.

That's lawnmowers, even just snapping can be something that can attract male cicadas to you.

But the other song is a warning call.

This is the distress sound.

Yeah, it seems to be a call to actually make sure that the rest of the population of cicadas can get away and not be killed.

And so it's remarkable.

But cicadas continue to show that they have in uh and all for 11 for all kind of dynamic going where they are intently trying to make sure that they can pass on their genes and that those around them can as well.

Once they've made it, the females lay their eggs in the trees and die within a few weeks.

10 weeks later their eggs hatch.

The Larva Fall and Burrow into the ground.

And the 17 year cycle begins again just beautiful.

I know that it's fairly easy for people to hear this and think of it as just a bunch of loud, random, purposeless noise.

But these creatures, the sound that they're producing here, uh it can even create an emotional response for you to consider what they have been through and what they are looking forward to.

I can't stop drawing parallels between us and the pandemic and all over the world as people have had the opportunity to reach a sense of normalcy after being in these situations where they're isolated from other people and it seems like we aren't that different from these creatures.

After all, they look so different, but they're after so many of the same things thereafter camaraderie there after the opportunity to be with other individuals and they love music.

The cicadas are about to make some things happen and it is truly about.

This is certified by and I hope that you are willing to really listen to it what it is girl, I'm telling you, you are the only one I've got these big red eyes for.