This week, Science Cabaret on Air is celebrating the 2011 emergence of the Great Southern Brood of 13-year periodical cicadas. Also known as Brood XIX, these striking red-eyed, orange-winged insects synchronously emerged in May throughout the southern US,, boisterously calling and mating like mad in the tree tops. Dr. Walt Koenig, a senior scientist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, has studied what effects the cicadas might have on other organisms in the forest, including the birds and trees. He joined host Holly Menninger to talk about this research and the wonderful and weird life cycles of the periodical cicadas. (Image credit)