Rare blue-eyed cicada

[zakur]

Story

WILLIAMSDALE, Butler County — Steve Morgan couldn't believe the blue-eyed bug he spotted among the thousands of red- and orange-eyed cicadas that had taken over his family's yard.

Gene Kritsky, a biology professor at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, said that while no studies have been conducted as to why some cicadas have blue eyes, "it is less than one-tenth of a percent."

The rare, blue-eyed cicada could be a result of a "dilution gene" that prevents a normal characteristic from being expressed, such as red eyes, or the activation of a gene that allows a suppressed characteristic to develop, Kritsky said, but they do occur. "I had one delivered to my office today by an elementary student," he said.

 

[William H.]

I've been looking for one of those! The girl that cut my hair told me that she saw one but I've no luck so far. I've been wondering what they look like with blue eyes, thanks for posting that.

 

[zakur]

Hoax offers reward for blue-eyed cicadas

BALTIMORE -- The buzz began last week, when word spread that Johns Hopkins University was paying $100 -- or maybe even $1,000 -- for rare blue-eyed cicadas.

Scores of callers hoping to cash in on their oddball bugs started ringing up the university's biology department soon after the normally red-eyed insects began emerging from the ground.

Alas, it's a hoax.

"We tell them as far as we know, no one is offering to buy blue-eyed cicadas," said Cindy Holstein, the department's administrator.

But that hasn't stopped the calls.

"It's constant," she said. "You hang up the phone, and you hear another one."

[...]

No one at Hopkins today is studying cicadas. The biology department doesn't even have an entomologist.

A lady called our reference desk today asking for contact information for whomever at Johns Hopkins is paying big money for blue-eyed cicadas. She would not believe me when I told her no one is - that it is just an urban legend. "But mine is still alive!" she insisted.