Communicators and tourist agencies feast on selling a postcard from Marseille, rocked by the sound of cicadas and bordered by the sea. But when they arrive at Saint-Charles station, travelers could well cry scam. Because past the souvenir shops where the song of the cicadas is canned, nothing, silence. Not a “tsss tsss tsss” to put under your ears, even if you ignore the noise of traffic, horns, motorcycles and other sirens.
A curious quest to find cicadas in Marseille. I remember the dismay of a colleague from a Parisian radio station in Marseille who came to record “the song of summer”. He was considering taking a cab out of town to find him. Sitting in the shade of a parasol in an alley overlooking the Place Villeneuve-Bargemon, Gérard and Jean-Marc discuss at the table around a largely diluted pastis: it is not yet noon and the two friends, Marseillais de always have the wisdom of those who have long passed 75 years.
Males “cymbalize” to attract females
Between two Fernandel recitals, Jean-Marc launches: “Listen! We hear nothing. There is no longer a cicada in Marseille ”. “Vé, look at the square, there are three trees lying around and only stones,” he continues, eliciting the approval of his friend. Renovated in 2006 by the architect Franck Hammoutène, the space is indeed very mineral, like the whole of the Old Port and the city. Something that the municipality is trying to reduce with force planters on the occasion of the partial pedestrianization of the port. Enough to bring back the cicadas?
“The cicadas larvae, laid in trees, then dig into the earth and stay there for two to five years”, explains Thibault Morra, entomology project manager at the Paca natural space conservatory. “Once they reach maturity, the larvae hatch and rise to the surface during the first heat, often after storms in June which loosen the soil. They then moult, before seeking to reproduce, ”continues the scientist. So inevitably “as there are fewer and fewer trees and more and more waterproofed and tarred soil, there are fewer and fewer cicadas in the city”. In the open air, cicadas only live one season during which they will seek to reproduce. And it is to attract females that males “cymbalize”, with small organs located along their abdomen, producing this characteristic chanting.
A first step would be to put trees back in town, because cicadas “have a fairly powerful flight. If they are disturbed or do not find females, they can easily walk a kilometer ”. It would then be necessary to spare more space where the grounds, in particular around the trees and in the places, remain natural. As in the city’s parks and gardens, like Longchamp Park, where drinking a coffee in the shade of a tree rocked by the song of the most famous local animal is still possible.