Farewell Brood X

Five minute read:

• Gravel cycling Virginia’s rural roads with friends.

• A timeline of US Presidents in office during emergence of Brood X cicadas.

• Physiography of western Loudoun County.

• The quaint village of Unison.

The molted exoskeleton of a Brood X cicada, Magicicada septendecims, clings beneath a branch. 428mm, 1/125s, f/6.3, iso 2500

This past week my friends Mike, Harold and I heard the shrill calling of the last remnants of Brood X periodical cicadas. We were Saturday morning biking along Virginia’s scenic gravel roads near the village of Unison.

Our 18.5-mile gravel ride through this beautiful bucolic countryside sits at the far western reaches of the Foothills physiographic subregion of the Piedmont, right about where it transitions into the Northern Blue Ridge province. The topography and soft surfaces provide challenging but really beautiful rides every time. Loudoun County has “Virginia’s largest network of rural roads”, according to America’s Routes, an organization dedicated to supporting their discovery, experience, and preservation. If you haven’t walked, cycled, horseback-riden, or at least driven on these lightly traveled country lanes, then you are probably missing out on a unique experience.

Stacked stone walls are familiar vernacular parts of the Middleburg, Virginia area landscape. 33mm, 1/250s, f/8.0, iso 100

This is horse country. Board-on-board fence and rolling topography are also ubiquitous. 31mm, 1/250s, f/7.1, iso 160

Our ride took us from an elevation of approximately 450 up to 650, with a total gain of around 1,300 feet once you account for all the downs and ups. The cooler undeveloped reaches through pasture and hollows resulted in a meaningful delay in emergence and, eventually, petering out of Brood X compared to other places. Like those closer to sea level and urbanity, eastward in Leesburg, Fairfax, and Washington, DC. More quantitatively, degreedays.net indicates that Leesburg, VA had 15.2 days warmer than 80 Farenheit in the previous month up to the day of our trip. This compares to 10.4 in the Town of Winchester which is about 35 miles to the west. Degree days are used to predict and benchmark plant growth (such as Tidal Basin cherry blossoms each spring) among other agricultural and energy use metrics.

Pennsylvania Quakers settled the town of Union, Virginia around 1740 and it was chartered by the Commonwealth in 1813. Unison became the official name in 1829 when the post office, having been previously discontinued, was reinstated but renamed on account of another Virginia town in Monroe County also named Union. Later, action in 1862 initiated by Confederate Calvary under JEB Stewart in Unison reportedly delayed Union forces to the benefit of Lee’s army. They were able to eventually take position around Fredericksburg and bolster the protection of the capitol in Richmond. This was a last straw for President Lincoln, who, greatly frustrated by repeated lost opportunities, removed General McClellan from command. By the 1870s, the establishment of the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad several miles away from Unison contributed to declining population and it again lost its post office. Reportedly Unison’s population is around 30 people today. There are many more horses and cattle.

An adult cicada makes a friend in an alder tree. 500mm, 1/160s, f/7.1, iso 800

By now we - especially us on the eastern seaboard - are familiar with stories and the life cycle of periodical cicadas that sound off in cacophony every 17 years. The eggs have been laid and Virginia said its final goodbyes the past few weeks to Brood X adults. As we celebrate American Independence today on July 4, I was curious of when the cicadas have intersected the American political landscape. Who might have been doing what, be it in their personal lives or more particular moments in history when Brood X came calling. And what will be happening when they emerge again in 2038 and every other 17 years. So, here is a list of American presidents throughout past emergence’s, including those monarchs since the Colony of VIrginia in 1607.

• 2038 __________ ______ _________ (50th President)

• 2021 Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr (47th)

• 2004 George Walker Bush (43rd)

• 1987, Ronald Wilson Reagan (40th)

• 1970 Richard Milhous Nixon (37th)

• 1953 Dwight David Eisenhower (34th)

• 1936 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32nd)

• 1919 Thomas Woodrow Wilson (28th)

• 1902 Theodore Roosevelt, Jr (26th)

• 1885 Stephen Grover Cleveland (22nd)

• 1868 Andrew Johnson (17th)

• 1851 Millard Fillmore (13th)

• 1834 Andrew Jackson (7th)

• 1817 James Madison, Jr (4th)

• 1800 John Adams, Jr (2nd)

• 1783 George William Frederick (George III, King of Great Britain &Ireland)

• American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1775 occurred 9 years after the previous Brood X emergence of 1766

• 1766 George William Frederick (George III, King of Great Britain & Ireland)

• 1749 and 1732 George Augustus (George II, King of Great Britain & Ireland)

• 1715 Anne Stuart (Queen of England, Scotland & Ireland)

• 1698 William of Orange (William III, King of England, Scotland & Ireland)

• 1681 James II (King of England and Ireland)

• 1664 Charles II (King of Scotland, England & Ireland)

• 1647 and 1630 Charles I (King of England, Scotland & Ireland)

• 1613 James Charles Stuart (James I, King of England and Ireland)

• The Jamestown Colony chartered in 1606 by Virginia Company was settled 9 years after the previous Brood X emergence of 1596

• 1596 Elizabeth I (Queen of England & Ireland)

Many hundreds of cicadas gathered in a large Smooth Alder Alnus serrulata tree along the man-made Broadlands Wetlands. 500mm, 1/400s, f/7.1, iso 1600