WASHINGTON, D.C. - Around these parts it has been impossible to escape the news that this is one of the years for the 17-year cicada, called magiccicada septendecim by scientists, but known better simply as "Brood X.'' This particular species of cicada is larger than most, with bulging red eyes, a smooth sloping forehead, and a deafening roar.

When the cicadas are in full bloom, so to speak, there can be more than a million an acre in the suburbs, buzzing at 90 decibels or more, louder than a passing freight truck. These attributes make them the insect equivalent of James Carville.

Like Carville, the 17-year cicada is a freak of evolution. By having a prime-numbered lifecycle, the cicada escapes the lifecycles of most potential predators. With a 17-year cycle, the appearance of the Brood X cicada coincides with a presidential election only every 68 years. This year marks merely the fourth coincidence of Brood X with a presidential election since the beginning of the republic.

The last time Brood X appeared, during the first re-election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, there was no Social Security. By the time Brood X comes again in 2072, it will likely be the same.

Brood X is not to be confused with the pestilent species we might simply call "the Brooding,'' i.e., the insect better known by its scientific name, politicus punditus, which appears at regular four-year cycles. Better known as "talking heads'' or "columnists,'' they are far from being an endangered species. In fact, their preferred habitat, TV news talk shows or the op-ed pages of newspapers, has expanded so much that the nation is being overrun by the Brooding horde. Their only known predator, a similar species known as editors, seems to have lost its appetite for curbing politicus punditus.

There are definite sub-species among the Brooding, including the parasite known as bloviator liberalis, which gives out a whining pitch from the walls of tax collection offices, its favored habitat. Some can be menacing, like the sub-species etymologists call Robertus Novakium, which emits its loud call with a chopping motion by its front foreclaw. All sub-species are vulnerable to infection by McLaughlinitis, a virus that swells the head and makes the victim rattle off random numbers between one and 10. And then there is soft-shell version known as Billius Moyersium, which oozes pink and white when you step on it.

Although they look like menacing locusts, Brood X cicadas are perfectly harmless. You can even eat them; they taste like fresh asparagus. Or so I am told.

The Brooding variety is mostly harmless, too, though the irony is that they exist as parasites on even bigger parasites--those voracious pests known as politicians.

Steven F. Hayward is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco and the author of The Age of Reagan--The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980. He can be reached via email at shayward@pacificresearch.org.