the Cicadas
are here!
Cicadas are a noisy, natural wonder. These inseces spend the vast majority of their lives underground, emerging en mass from the ground every 13 or 1 7 years, depending on the species. They fly, climb trees, shed their skins, become adults, and fill the air with their loud mating clicks. Have YOU seen or heard them?!
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The cicada has the longest lifecycle of any insect. Some broods are on a 13 year cycle, while 3 others, including Brood X, emerge every 17 years. They live those 17 years about a foot or two underground as wingless nymphs, feeding on the sap of tree roots. When they are mature, a biological clock triggers the once-in-a-generation emergence.
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To give them the best chance of successfully finding a mate and reproducingbefore they are eaten by predators or expire naturally, huge populations of cicada, called broods, have synced up to emerge within the same time period.
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Cicadas are impressively loud, but only the males produce the ear-splitting sounds in their efforts to attract a mate. To produce the signature cicada chirp, the males contract two ridged membranes on the side of their abdomen. Those sounds are amplified by their almost-hollow abdomens. If a female in interested, she'll click her wings in return.
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Cicadas are not picky and have been documented as eating more than 200 different species of tree. Other wildlife benefits from the mass emergence of cicadas, and there's often a boost in animal populations in the year after a brood’s emergence.
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Tasty fact: cicadas are eaten by humans in various countries, including China, where the nymphs are served deep-fried in Shandong cuisine.
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