The Field Museum Prepares for the Summer of Cicadas

Museum to Open Temporary Exhibit "Cicadas and Emerald Ash Borers"

    CHICAGO, May 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cicada season is almost upon
 us; after seventeen years, the cicadas of Brood XIII will emerge from the
 ground in enormous numbers this June. The insects, which have musical
 mechanisms in their abdomens, will certainly be hard to ignore once they
 have arrived in the Chicago area. To mark the emergence of the 17-year
 periodical cicadas, The Field Museum will open a new exhibition, Cicadas
 and Emerald Ash Borers, on Friday, May 18, 2007. Cicada experts are
 available for comment at the Museum.
     The exhibit, which will be housed in several cases on the ground floor
 of the Museum, will feature an extraordinary video of a 17-year periodical
 cicada emerging from the ground, marching up trees and shrubs and bursting
 out of their exoskeletons to become adult cicadas. The exhibit also
 contains insect specimens from the Museum's collection, a letter about
 cicadas written by Charles Darwin to a Chicago-area scientist about the
 cicadas and nine different pieces of art from Asia depicting the insect and
 different cultural perceptions of them-including jade cicada amulets from
 China that were once placed in the mouths of the dead to symbolize rebirth.
 Cicadas will give insight to the life cycle of the cicada, the
 longest-living insect species in the world, and their astonishing
 behavioral adaptations.
     Visitors will also get a chance to learn about the emerald ash borer,
 an invasive species of beetle, that is wreaking havoc on ash trees
 throughout the Chicago region. One fifth of all trees in the Chicago area
 are ash trees, and thus endangered. Visitors can examine emerald ash borer
 and damaged ash specimens, as well as learn how to prevent further damage.
     If the Cicadas exhibit whets your appetite for all things
 creepy-crawly, be sure to also visit Underground Adventure to learn more
 about cicadas, as well as other subterranean life forms. Underground
 Adventure shrinks you to the size of a bug and turns you loose in an
 underground soil ecosystem. You will come face-to-face with giant earwigs,
 ants, a wolf spider and more. True cicada fans can even climb into a cicada
 exoskeleton.
     Cicadas and Emerald Ash Borers will be on display at The Field Museum
 from Friday, May 18, 2007 through Labor Day. Admission is free with basic
 admission. The Museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last
 tickets sold at 4 p.m. For more information, call (312) 922-9410, or visit
 http://www.fieldmuseum.org. The Field Museum is located at 1400 S. Lake
 Shore Drive in Chicago.
 
 

SOURCE The Field Museum