Brood XIX

“Brood XIX”
Copyright 2024 Susan Brubaker Knapp

 

The hatching of Brood XIX (the Great Southern Brood) cicadas was an extraordinary event for us here in Orange County, North Carolina, this year. These are periodical cicadas that only emerge every 13 years.

I was thrilled to watch these insects  – that look so different from our annual cicadas (smaller, with orange veining on their wings, and red eyes!) emerge from their exoskeletons, dry and unfold their wings. For the first time since 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president, both Brood XIX and Brood XIII (the Northern Illinois Brood) emerged together, with overlapping areas in northern Illinois. “Nobody alive today will see it happen again,” said Floyd W. Shockley, an entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. (New York Times)

18 x 10.5" White cotton fabric, acrylic textile paint, cotton batting, cotton thread. Wholecloth painted and free-motion quilted.