Back To Brood Theory!
Thursday, June 30th, 2022 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioSo, after writing PT2 of Migration Theory yesterday morning, I was out in the yard checking up on things that afternoon and I swear I saw two different baby crickets (nymphs)!
This lead me to do a little refresher on the cricket life cycle and I found some answers at https://sciencing.com/life-cycle-of-a-cricket-12334517.html
Right away... I saw information to refute the migration theory...
0----------------------------0
"The ideal temperature for cricket development in captivity is between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Under the right conditions, the egg will take 14 days to develop.
In the wild, eggs slowly develop throughout the winter.
After hatching, the cricket larvae, called nymphs, dig their way through the substrate to reach the surface."
0----------------------------0
WELL WHY DIDN'T SOMEBODY JUST SAY THAT?
Like I said a few days ago, Google results are so overflowing with pest control propoganda, and information from breeders, who are only breeding them to feed reptillian pets... that it's difficult to find scientific answers about how they really behave in the natural world.
We're gonna look at what this all means, and what my migration theory means below.
But first we need to take a minute to review the cricket life cycle... in nature... according to science.
------------{=0=}------------
Crickets, of course, begin as eggs in the ground. And now we know those eggs DO survive the winter.
0----------------------------0
"In the wild, eggs slowly develop throughout the winter. After hatching, the cricket larvae, called nymphs, dig their way through the substrate to reach the surface.
When nymphs hatch from the egg, they look like a miniature version of an adult cricket without wings or reproductive organs.
To get bigger, the cricket nymph sheds its hard exoskeleton, or 'skin,' through a process called molting.
The time between each molt phase is called an instar. Crickets go through around eight to ten molts from hatching to adulthood.
Crickets live as nymphs for two to four months."
0----------------------------0
So, crickets begin as nymphs which look like miniature crickets, but how big are they when they first hatch? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(insect),
"The egg hatches into a nymph about the size of a fruit fly."
So they start life as crickets the size of fruit flies, then go through eight to ten instars, getting bigger with each one... over the course of two to four months... until they're finally adults.
Can males start to sing before they're fully adults? This is another difficult to Google question, because even the above sources don't address it, but it's not pertinent to the subject at hand, so I'll look at that another day.
At any rate, I know the nymphs I saw today could not sing, and were about a third the size of an adult cricket.
Also knowing they are one month away from singing suggests three more instars. That in turn suggests they've been through three instars in June, and three in May, for a total of nine instars.
So if it takes eight to ten instars from hatching, to reach adulthood, we're back at my original assumption, that if eggs could survive the winter, they should hatch in late April!
------------{=0=}------------
Apparently they ARE local, and they DO hatch in late April, but it simply takes three months for them to reach adulthood and start singing!
But this doesn't answer the question of why it's ALWAYS around August 1st, when we can sometimes have very cold Aprils, and sometimes very warm Marches.
Is it just my own confirmation bias, that it's always August 1st? Do they in fact some years get started in July, and other years, not until mid to late August?
I'm pretty sure not?.. because my brain's been tracking a lot of other summer milestones for the past 30 years, such as June bugs, lightning bugs, and tiger lillies. And I've seen a big drift over that time.
June bugs used to never be seen before the last days of May. Lightning bugs, never before the last days of June. Tiger lillies also, never blooming until early July.
But these days, June bugs show up in early May and are gone by June. And the lightning bugs and tiger lillies are in full swing by mid June, and fading out by the first week of July!
Yet the crickets still always stubbornly wait until August 1st!.. at least in my brain!
------------{=0=}------------
I'm gonna go out on a theoretical limb here and speculate that this actually would make more sense if there were alternating broods every other year.
Breeders tell us they'll hatch every 14 days if conditions are right. Scientists say that in nature, the eggs will slowly develop over the winter.
But are the scientists actually checking to see if the eggs laid last summer are the same ones haching in the spring? Or are they just assuming it's an annual cycle?
In the brood theory, the eggs would actually stay in the ground for two years, and thus, not only be able to overwinter, but absorb more resources underground that spring and summer they remained dormant.... you know... taking in nutrients... locking heat into chemical bonds or something.
Their clocks would have a lot longer to synchronize with the sun... meaning they'd always hatch in late April. But they'd emerge with enough HP do so, even if it was a cold april, and survive the cold snaps of May... staying on that 10 instar schedule, to start singing on August 1st, no matter what.
------------{=0=}------------
I know that's all a stretch, especially considering I just debunked my own migration theory in under a week.
Therfore, more observation is necessary... this year, to see if there really is a hard start date of August 1st... and in the years to come, to see if there's any validity to the idea that even-numbered years have a lively brood, and odd-numbered years have a lazy brood.
------------{=0=}------------
As for migration theory... I guess, if anything, it could still kind of explain how they originally populated Pangea, and established the clock they still work on today, for when they reach adulthood at what latitude.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
This lead me to do a little refresher on the cricket life cycle and I found some answers at https://sciencing.com/life-cycle-of-a-cricket-12334517.html
Right away... I saw information to refute the migration theory...
0----------------------------0
"The ideal temperature for cricket development in captivity is between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Under the right conditions, the egg will take 14 days to develop.
In the wild, eggs slowly develop throughout the winter.
After hatching, the cricket larvae, called nymphs, dig their way through the substrate to reach the surface."
0----------------------------0
WELL WHY DIDN'T SOMEBODY JUST SAY THAT?
Like I said a few days ago, Google results are so overflowing with pest control propoganda, and information from breeders, who are only breeding them to feed reptillian pets... that it's difficult to find scientific answers about how they really behave in the natural world.
We're gonna look at what this all means, and what my migration theory means below.
But first we need to take a minute to review the cricket life cycle... in nature... according to science.
Crickets, of course, begin as eggs in the ground. And now we know those eggs DO survive the winter.
"In the wild, eggs slowly develop throughout the winter. After hatching, the cricket larvae, called nymphs, dig their way through the substrate to reach the surface.
When nymphs hatch from the egg, they look like a miniature version of an adult cricket without wings or reproductive organs.
To get bigger, the cricket nymph sheds its hard exoskeleton, or 'skin,' through a process called molting.
The time between each molt phase is called an instar. Crickets go through around eight to ten molts from hatching to adulthood.
Crickets live as nymphs for two to four months."
0----------------------------0
So, crickets begin as nymphs which look like miniature crickets, but how big are they when they first hatch? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(insect),
"The egg hatches into a nymph about the size of a fruit fly."
So they start life as crickets the size of fruit flies, then go through eight to ten instars, getting bigger with each one... over the course of two to four months... until they're finally adults.
Can males start to sing before they're fully adults? This is another difficult to Google question, because even the above sources don't address it, but it's not pertinent to the subject at hand, so I'll look at that another day.
At any rate, I know the nymphs I saw today could not sing, and were about a third the size of an adult cricket.
Also knowing they are one month away from singing suggests three more instars. That in turn suggests they've been through three instars in June, and three in May, for a total of nine instars.
So if it takes eight to ten instars from hatching, to reach adulthood, we're back at my original assumption, that if eggs could survive the winter, they should hatch in late April!
Apparently they ARE local, and they DO hatch in late April, but it simply takes three months for them to reach adulthood and start singing!
But this doesn't answer the question of why it's ALWAYS around August 1st, when we can sometimes have very cold Aprils, and sometimes very warm Marches.
Is it just my own confirmation bias, that it's always August 1st? Do they in fact some years get started in July, and other years, not until mid to late August?
I'm pretty sure not?.. because my brain's been tracking a lot of other summer milestones for the past 30 years, such as June bugs, lightning bugs, and tiger lillies. And I've seen a big drift over that time.
June bugs used to never be seen before the last days of May. Lightning bugs, never before the last days of June. Tiger lillies also, never blooming until early July.
But these days, June bugs show up in early May and are gone by June. And the lightning bugs and tiger lillies are in full swing by mid June, and fading out by the first week of July!
Yet the crickets still always stubbornly wait until August 1st!.. at least in my brain!
I'm gonna go out on a theoretical limb here and speculate that this actually would make more sense if there were alternating broods every other year.
Breeders tell us they'll hatch every 14 days if conditions are right. Scientists say that in nature, the eggs will slowly develop over the winter.
But are the scientists actually checking to see if the eggs laid last summer are the same ones haching in the spring? Or are they just assuming it's an annual cycle?
In the brood theory, the eggs would actually stay in the ground for two years, and thus, not only be able to overwinter, but absorb more resources underground that spring and summer they remained dormant.... you know... taking in nutrients... locking heat into chemical bonds or something.
Their clocks would have a lot longer to synchronize with the sun... meaning they'd always hatch in late April. But they'd emerge with enough HP do so, even if it was a cold april, and survive the cold snaps of May... staying on that 10 instar schedule, to start singing on August 1st, no matter what.
I know that's all a stretch, especially considering I just debunked my own migration theory in under a week.
Therfore, more observation is necessary... this year, to see if there really is a hard start date of August 1st... and in the years to come, to see if there's any validity to the idea that even-numbered years have a lively brood, and odd-numbered years have a lazy brood.
As for migration theory... I guess, if anything, it could still kind of explain how they originally populated Pangea, and established the clock they still work on today, for when they reach adulthood at what latitude.
°¦}
