Margaretta Hare Morris: The Woman who solved a cicada Mystery #45

This spring, the 17-year cicadas of Brood X will emerge from underground, climb tree trunks and molt, leaving their crunchy shells behind. Soon after, the males will join together in a droning chorus to the delight (or consternation) of their human neighbors. 

Those with a keen ear might detect that there are several buzzy songs occurring at once. This is not because the cicadas have a large repertoire. Rather, there are few different cicada species, including the Magicicada septendecim and the Magicicada cassini, each with a different tune.

In the early 19th century this was still a mystery, but the entomologist Margaretta Hare Morris had suspicions. Ever since she had been a teenager, she had carefully observed the emergence of cicadas. She had heard the different cicada songs in 1817 and again 1834. It was in 1846, though, when she was 49, that Morris felt confident enough to announce that she had discovered a new species. Follow us on Instagram @s3podcast_ & @s3s3productions

---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thes3podcast/message