The cicadas, having sung all summer, start singing again on All Saints Day! You do not dream. You hear them again at Les Goudes in Marseille or on the Cours Mirabeau in Aix-en-Provence. Stigma of an endless summer, exceptionally hot according to entomologist Gérard Filippi. “I have been observing cicadas for many years. I noted October 12, but never so late. The heat wave was so strong that some larvae preferred to wait for more favorable conditions”
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Because of the heat wave, everything is delayed
The scientist who surveys Provence is struck by the appearance of insects and plants from Africa. “With the high temperatures, you will have to get used to everything being delayed. Nature has worked in slow motion this summer. Insects have a very quick ability to adapt. The cicada is the conductor of our landscapes de Provence and it adapts. I am not worried about it. It is made for high heat. Only fires can eliminate it. Insects have an extraordinary capacity for adaptation”.
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Gérard Filippi thinks that cicadas are not threatened with extinction. Each specimen lays 600 eggs in its life, the cicada is a species that reproduces enormously even if the larval time is extremely long, up to 7 years.
Climate concern
All the inhabitants of Provence cannot fail to hear in this autumnal comeback the sign of climate change. Grégory Allione, the former head of the Bouches-du-Rhône firefighters, president of the national federation of firefighters, fears the consequences of an “anomaly on the flora and fauna” which already registers 2023 in another year of fire risk.
Paul Marquis, meteorological expert from Météo, from 13 also insists on this exceptional presence. And to be honest, not really reassuring.