Cicadas, red-eyed bugs singing loud sci-fi sounding songs, can seem downright creepy. Especially since the trillions of them coming this year emerge from underground only every 17 years.
Cicadas, red-eyed bugs singing loud sci-fi sounding songs, can seem downright creepy. Especially since the trillions of them coming this year emerge from underground only every 17 years. But they’re not monsters or a plague of locusts. Once you get to know them, scientists say you can appreciate the wonder of these unusual creatures. So here are some answers to cicada question that may be bugging you. They are a family of insects called magicicadas. They belong to a group of bugs that are different from other insects in that both the nymphs and adults have a beak they use to drink plant fluids. Adults have two sets of wings. There are more than 190 known varieties of cicadas in North America and 3,390 of them around the world. Most cicada species come out every year. In the United States, there are groups of cicadas that stay underground for either 13 years or 17 years. These are called periodical broods. Except for one species in India and one in Fiji, only the U.S. gets these periodic cicadas. Cicadas are not locusts. They are not grasshoppers. Those are different species. But when Europeans first arrived in America, some started calling them locusts and even grasshoppers. Different groups of cicadas come out in different years in different places. This year’s group is called Brood X, as in the Roman numeral 10. There are 15 broods that still come out regularly. Others have gone extinct. Some come out every 13 years. Some, including Brood X, come out every 17 years. Some entomologists theorize that it’s an evolutionary defense mechanism. They stay underground so long that most predators will have no memory or history to look for them. That’s another evolutionary defense mechanism. Lots of creatures – even ants – eat cicadas. When they first come out and try to molt their skin, they can get stuck and are particularly vulnerable to attack. They come out in large numbers so that some of them will survive.
