Periodical Cicadas

Cue the creepy voice: They're heeeere! 

And by they, I am talking about the periodical cicadas which are just arriving in our area in the TRILLIONS. After a cool spring, it has taken a few extra weeks for the ground temperature to reach the required 68*F and emerge from the earth. 

However, you might be wondering why I am writing about them, and what they have to do with us! 

On a whim, I looked up "cicadas" in our Medical Annals of Maryland to see if anything came up. Nothing. But then I entered "locusts" and found a few references, including biography for Gideon B. Smith. 

Gideon Smith was born in Maryland in 1793 and received his MD from the University of Maryland in 1840 (an adult learner!). He was the Editor of the Journal of the American Silk Association in 1839-1940. He was also the editor of  the American Farmer and Turf Register. 

He became a well-known entomologist and was, at one time, engaged in the cultivation of silk worms. He was the originator of several ingenious inventions, and was, perhaps, the highest authority in the country on 17-year locusts [sic].

Dr. Smith worked with another Faculty member, Dr. Nathaniel Potter, who was also interested in cicadas. 

From American Entomologist: 

Smith, living in Baltimore, was well placed to make connections with other entomologists in the city, including the physician Dr. Nathaniel Potter (Lemmer 1957). Potter first noticed the periodical cicadas in 1783 during the emergence of what is now recognized as Brood X, and he decided to enter into cicada research “with all enthusiasm” during the Brood X emergence of 1817, as he was dismayed to find that scientific understanding of cicadas had not advanced in the 34 years following his first encounter with them (Potter 1839). Potter published an article on periodical cicadas in The American Farmer in 1829, which Smith would certainly have read, as he was working for the journal at that time.

Dr. Smith also worked with John James Audubon and helped him sell subscriptions to Birds of America, thereby ensuring its publication. Audubon named a lark-bunting in Smith's honor (even though it had been named a decade earlier).

For more information on cicadas and Dr. Gideon Smith, here is a recent article from the Winter 2020 issue of the
 American Entomologist.