Periodical Cicada

Periodical cicadas have solved predation through mathematics. Spending 13 or 17 years underground as nymphs, entire populations emerge simultaneously—billions of cicadas appearing within days. Predators gorge themselves but cannot consume the surplus. The survivors mate, lay eggs, and die within weeks. Then silence for another 13 or 17 years. No predator can synchronize its lifecycle to exploit such rare, unpredictable bounty.

The prime number cycles are not coincidental. Prime numbers have no common factors with shorter cycles. A predator with a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6-year cycle would rarely coincide with 13 or 17-year emergences. Mathematical analysis shows prime cycles minimize overlap with potential predator cycles. Evolution discovered number theory millions of years before humans formalized it.

The synchronization requires precision across enormous populations. Cicadas underground monitor soil temperature accumulations—17 cycles of ground warming and cooling before emergence triggers. The biological clock maintains synchrony across individuals that have never seen each other. When emergence comes, it comes everywhere within a brood's range simultaneously. The business parallel illuminates predator satiation through timing. Cicadas succeed not through defense or hiding but through overwhelming numbers at unpredictable intervals. Some business strategies similarly rely on timing rather than sustained presence—surprise product launches, irregular market entries, opportunistic acquisitions. The cicada approach works when competitors cannot predict timing and cannot consume all opportunities when they appear.