Theory 08/Life history
Prime Cycles Dodge Predators
The claim
Periodical cicada brood intervals are set by the ratio of predator cycle length to developmental time, favouring prime numbers because they minimise overlap with shorter cycles.
01Mechanism
A brood emerging every N years coincides with a predator cycling every k years whenever k divides N; primes minimise the number of divisors.
02Predictions
- P1Brood intervals should be prime or rarely composite.
- P2Predator abundance alone should mispredict.
03Refutation
Intervals tracking climate would remove the number-theoretic argument.
04Why it resists the grid
It is a number-theoretic claim about an ecological strategy, which fits neither the mechanism families nor the ecological frames.