In Gears of War (X360) the villains are an alien race called the locusts and have, indeed, some familiarities with a species of bugs, but not locusts. The locusts from Gears of War are said to have emerged from the underground of planet Sera many decades after humans colonized it, before that, no human had ever seen a locust, nor thought one could exist.

The magicicada are a genre of cicadas that has the nick name of seventeen-year locust, that name is derived from the cyclical nature of their offspring. All cicadas lay eggs underground and so the larvae have to dig up emergence holes. What differentiates the magicicada is that their species have broods that emerge in synchrony; there are thirteen year cycle species and seventeen year cycle species. Those are very long life-spans for insects (the parents die not long before the next brood emerges) and could sure be an inspiration to the emergence holes in Gears of War and serve as explanation for the locust’s absence during the first decades of humans in Sera, maybe they have a decades long cycle, we still don’t know, since in the game we are only fourteen years after “emergence day”, maybe they will explore that in sequels.

There are fifteen broods distributed through the seven species of magicicada (three of which have a seventeen year cycle and four that have a thirteen year cycle. “So when will I be able to see a real life emergence hole?” you ask? Well you can see emergence holes from brood XIII right now, they where scheduled to emerge this year and so they are doing. The next thirteen year brood to emerge is brood XIX and they will come up in 2011. But you have to be in North America to see one of the E-holes, the magicicada are only found in certain regions of N.A.

I hope all you readers out there have enjoyed this first column and the idea behind Game Science Weekly. Please, send us your suggestions for a future edition of GSW, tell us a game or science fact you want to see talked about. Write to Gus at glanzetta@gamersdailynews.com or post on his new forum dedicated to this column.