why this is not good news

In the streets of the capital would float (almost) as a Provence air. To the rhythm of global warming, while the average temperatures in Paris could reach those current Montpellier by the end of the century according to a weather report published in December 2024, we can now hear some cymbalizing cicadas.

Read too

Biodiversity: “global warming goes far too fast, not all species will be able to adapt”

According to the Regional Biodiversity Agency in Île-de-France (ARB), cicadas have been observed in the capital for ten years, brought in the form of larvae by the transport of vegetation from the south of France. “They were transported in fruit crates from the south of France. They arrive in Paris with the markets ”explains to the “Parisian” Jérôme Sueur, lecturer at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

If these insects found themselves 700 kilometers from their home by « accident »they adapted to Parisian trees because of global warming. Winter periods less and less intense, more and more hot summer … “With this air conditioning, cicadas will be able to survive and do their full cycle and therefore prosper in Paris”explains to TF1 Hemminki Johan, in charge of naturalist studies at ARB; The cicada flourishes and stridle from 25 degrees. However, she suffers when the temperatures are too high and stops singing when we approach 40 degrees.

Displacement of the distribution area

If the “song” Male cicadas, issued by the snap of small membranes located at the birth of the wings, is now heard in Paris or Lyon, it could disappear from the south of France. Indeed, the distribution area of the species moves, because where it is too hot, they will not survive.

“We have found that cicadas do not sing practically any more in the afternoon when the mercury exceeds 36 ° C in the shade, it is too hot for them”, Underlines the agroclimatologist Serge Zaka with France 3 PACA. According to the specialist, cicadas can no longer regulate their temperature in too high. “It is the biological reaction to thermal stress”, indicates the researcher. When the temperatures are too high, the cicadas are instinctively silent and therefore no longer reproduce.

Read too

Decryption
Thousands of species disappear each year, but are there also species that appear?

Usually, the cicadas cymbal from the end of June to mid-September, but it is not uncommon not to hear their song from the end of August in Provence. At the microphone of BFM Marseille Provence, Serge Zaka explains: “The cicada cycle starts and stops earlier in the year. With climate change it will even be necessary, by 2050, expect the cicadas to begin to sing at the end of May and that they stop at the end of July ”. And conclude: “It will be normal in a future climate. »»