内容摘要：The river has risen slightly in some places in recent days, but after back-to-back and increasingly severe droughts, locals worry about next year.

The river has risen slightly in some places in recent days, but after back-to-back and increasingly severe droughts, locals worry about next year.

And it’s not easy to get into the xylem, which doesn’t just flow out when a bug taps into it because it’s under negative pressure. The cicada can get the fluid because its outsized head has a pump, said University of Alabama Huntsville entomologist Carrie Deans.They use their proboscis like a tiny straw — about the width of a hair — with the pump sucking out the liquid, said Georgia Tech biophysics professor Saad Bhamla. They spend nearly their entire lives drinking, year after year.

“It’s a hard way to make a living,” Deans said.Georgia Institute of Technology biophysicist Saad Bhamla holds a periodical cicada nymph on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta on Thursday, March 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Georgia Institute of Technology biophysicist Saad Bhamla holds a periodical cicada nymph on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta on Thursday, March 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A cicada hole is visible in the soil after a heavy rain on the campus of Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)A cicada hole is visible in the soil after a heavy rain on the campus of Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

All that watery fluid has to come out the other end. And boy does it.

Bhamla in March published a study of the urination flow rates of animals across the world. Cicadas were clearly king, peeing two to three times stronger and faster than elephants and humans. He couldn’t look at the periodical cicadas that mostly feed and pee underground, but he used video to record and measure the flow rate of their Amazon cousins, which topped out around 10 feet per second (3 meters per second).Anna Geislerova poses for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Caravan’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Anna Geislerova poses for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Caravan’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)Director Joachim Trier, from left, Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning pose for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Sentimental Value’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Director Joachim Trier, from left, Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning pose for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Sentimental Value’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)Nadia Tereszkiewicz, left, and Alessandro Borghi pose for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Heads or Tails?’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Lewis Joly/Invision/AP)