ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 29, 1996 TAG: 9605290073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FREDERICKSBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
LEGEND HAS IT that a Spotsylvania High student made $500 in 1979 accepting the dares and money of peers who watched him eat buzzing cicadas.
Seventeen years ago - the last time millions of cicadas emerged to sing, mate, lay eggs and die in eastern Virginia - Todd Wilkinson used the bugs to amaze his classmates and prosper in the process.
``I remember it being the talk of the school that Todd was eating locusts for money,'' said Ronnie James, a classmate of Wilkinson's at Spotsylvania High School back in 1979.
With the orange-striped insects back on the wing and filling the air with their eerie cries this spring as part of their 17-year life cycle, Spotsylvania High alumni from the age of disco are reminded of Wilkinson.
Legend has it that he made $500 in the spring of 1979 accepting the dares (and the money) of appalled peers who watched him munch and swallow the live, wriggling, buzzing cicadas.
``I think for 20 bucks, he ate one in front of the chemistry class after lunch period. It was one of those things that got around Spotsylvania High School pretty quickly,'' James remembered.
Now 33 and working at a golf course in Gainesville, Fla., Wilkinson downplays the insect-eating of his youth and claims not to remember making nearly as much money as his own legend proclaims.
It all started when he tied a string to a cicada and brought it to school one day as a pet. A friend said he'd pay him $5 to devour his pet.
``It dawned on me that I could make money that way,'' Wilkinson said in a telephone interview with The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg. ``But I really didn't do it for the money. It was just a high school thing - a prank.''
Todd treated his baseball teammates to a cicada-eating exhibition during practice one afternoon and earned the nickname ``Lokie'' - short for locusts - from his coach. Never mind that cicadas and locusts are different animals.
As his fame spread, Wilkinson's homecoming-queen girlfriend got wind of his exploits and threatened to break up with him over it. Faced with that ultimatum, Wilkinson did what any red-blooded American boy would do under the circumstances - he began charging more for his performances.
``Well, that did add an element of danger to it,'' Wilkinson said.
Cicada-swallowing did Wilkinson no harm. ``Locusts are full of protein,'' said Joella Killian, a Mary Washington biology professor who specializes in insects. ``And they're great roughage.''
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB