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This year promises to be a bumper one for cicadas given that 2024 marks the first time in more than 200 years that two broods belonging to two species will emerge at the same time.
Now researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in the US say we might have more to worry about than just the cacophony that the insects are famous for.
They have studied cicadas’ “unique” ability to produce jets of urination from their small bodies.
Most insects urinate via droplets given that it takes less energy to do so and that their orifices are too small to do anything else.
Cicadas, however, are such voracious eaters of tree sap that individually flicking away each drop would be too taxing and would result in being unable to extract enough nutrients.
To get around this problem, they instead pee via short jets (see video above).
“Previously, it was understood that if a small animal wants to eject jets of water, then this becomes a bit challenging, because the animal expends more energy to force the fluid’s exit at a higher speed,” notes Elio Challita, who is currently based at Harvard University. “This is due to surface tension and viscous forces. But a larger animal can rely on gravity and inertial forces to pee. ”
Due to the cicadas’ larger size they use less energy to expel a jet and indeed, it turns out that cicadas are the smallest animal to create such high-speed jets.
The team think that a greater understanding of cicadas urination could help in the design of better nozzles and robots.
And with a double brood emerging this year, it could be a noisy, and wet, summer.
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- Source: https://physicsworld.com/a/researchers-reveal-the-fluid-dynamics-behind-cicadas-unique-urination/
