The term periodical cicada is commonly used to refer to any of the seven species of the genus Magicicada of eastern North America, the 13- and 17-year cicadas. They are called periodical because nearly all individuals in a local population are developmentally synchronized and emerge in the same year. Although they are sometimes called "locusts", this is a misnomer, as cicadas belong to the taxonomic order Hemiptera (true bugs), suborder Auchenorrhyncha, while locusts are grasshoppers belonging to the order Orthoptera.[2]Magicicada belongs to the cicada tribe Lamotialnini, a group of genera with representatives in Australia, Africa, and Asia, as well as the Americas.[3]
Magicicada species spend around 99.5% of their long lives underground in an immature state called a nymph. While underground, the nymphs feed on xylem fluids from the roots of deciduous forest trees in the eastern United States.[4] In the spring of their 13th or 17thyear, mature cicada nymphs emerge between late April and early June (depending on latitude), synchronously and in tremendous numbers.[5][6] The adults are active for only about four to six weeks after the unusually prolonged developmental phase.[7]
The males aggregate in chorus centers and call there to attract mates. Mated females lay eggs in the stems of woody plants. Within two months of the original emergence, the life cycle is complete and the adult cicadas die. Later in that same summer, the eggs hatch and the new nymphs burrow underground to develop for the next 13 or 17years.
Periodical emergences are also reported for the "World Cup cicada" Chremistica ribhoi (every 4years)[8] in northeast India and for a cicada species from Fiji, Raiateana knowlesi (every 8years).[9]
Description
Many Brood X periodical cicadas (Magicicada) (video with sound)
The winged imago (adult) periodical cicada has two red compound eyes, three small ocelli, and a black dorsal thorax. The wings are translucent with orange veins. The underside of the abdomen may be black, orange, or striped with orange and black, depending on the species.[10]
Adults are typically 2.4 to 3.3cm (0.9 to 1.3in), depending on species, generally about 75% the size of most of the annual cicada species found in the same region. Mature females are slightly larger than males.[11]
Magicicada males typically form large aggregations that sing in chorus to attract receptive females. Different species have different characteristic calling songs. The call of decim periodical cicadas is said to resemble someone calling "weeeee-whoa" or "Pharaoh".[12] The cassini and decula periodical cicadas (including M.tredecula) have songs that intersperse buzzing and ticking sounds.[11]
Cicadas cannot sting and do not normally bite. Like other Auchenorrhyncha (true) bugs, they have mouthparts used to pierce plants and suck their sap. These mouthparts are used during the nymph stage to tap underground roots for water, minerals and carbohydrates and in the adult stage to acquire nutrients and water from plant stems. An adult cicada's proboscis can pierce human skin when it is handled, which is painful but in no other way harmful. Cicadas are neither venomous nor poisonous and there is no evidence that they or their bites can transmit diseases.[13]
Oviposition by female periodical cicadas damages pencil-sized twigs of woody vegetation. Mature trees rarely suffer lasting damage, although peripheral twig die-off or "flagging" may result.[14] Planting young trees or shrubs is best postponed until after an expected emergence of the periodical cicadas. Existing young trees or shrubs can be covered with cheesecloth or other mesh netting with holes that are 3⁄8in (1.0cm) in diameter or smaller to prevent damage during the oviposition period,[15] which begins about a week after the first adults emerge and lasts until all females have died.
Life cycle
Transformation from mature nymph to adultTime-lapse of final molt and darkening, over 4.5 hoursEmergence! Nearly all at once. Many do not survive, but with mass emergence, many will reach maturity to start the next generation.Adult cicada female creating a slit in twig and inserting eggs. The sound is of thousands of cicadas.
Nearly all cicadas spend years underground as juveniles, before emerging above ground for a short adult stage of several weeks to a few months. The seven periodical cicada species are so named because, in any one location, all members of the population are developmentally synchronized—they emerge as adults all at once in the same year. This periodicity is especially remarkable because their life cycles are so long—13 or 17years.
In contrast, for nonperiodical species, some adults mature each summer and emerge while the rest of the population continues to develop underground. Many people refer to these nonperiodical species as annual cicadas because some are seen every summer. This may lead some to conclude that the non-periodic cicadas have life cycles of 1year. This is incorrect. The few known life cycles of "annual" species range from two to 10years, although some could be longer.[citation needed]
The nymphs of the periodical cicadas live underground, usually within 2ft (61cm) of the surface, feeding on the juices of plant roots.[16] The nymphs of the periodical cicada undergo five instar stages in their development underground. The difference in the 13- and 17-year life cycle is said to be the time needed for the second instar to mature. When underground the nymphs move deeper below ground, detecting and then feeding on larger roots as they mature.[17]
The nymphs seem to track the number of years by detecting the changes in the xylem caused by abscission of the tree. This was supported experimentally by inducing a grove of trees to go through two cycles of losing and re-growing leaves in one calendar year. Cicadas feeding on those trees emerged after 16years instead of 17.[18]
In late April to early June of the emergence year, mature fifth-instar nymphs construct tunnels to the surface and wait for the soil temperature to reach a critical value.[7][19] In some situations, nymphs extend mud turrets up to several inches above the soil surface.[20] The function of these turrets is not known, but the phenomenon has been observed in some nonperiodical cicadas, as well as other tunneling insects.[21]
The nymphs first emerge on a spring evening when the soil temperature at around 20cm (8in) of depth is above 17.9°C (64°F). The crepuscular emergence is thought to be related to the fact that maximum soil temperatures lag behind maximum insolation by several hours,[citation needed] conveniently providing some protection for the flightless nymphs against diurnal sight predators such as birds. For the rest of their lives the mature periodical cicadas will be strongly diurnal, with song often nearly ceasing at night.
During most years in the United States this emergence cue translates to late April or early May in the far south, and late May to early June in the far north. Emerging nymphs may molt in the grass or climb from a few centimeters to more than 100 feet (30 m) to find a suitable vertical surface to complete their transformation into adults. After securing themselves to tree trunks, the walls of buildings, telephone poles, fenceposts, hanging foliage, and even stationary automobile tires, the nymphs undergo a final molt and then spend about six days in the trees to await the complete hardening of their wings and exoskeletons. Just after emerging from this final molt the teneral adults are off-white, but darken within an hour.
Adult periodical cicadas live for only a few weeks; by mid-July, all have died. Their ephemeral adult forms are adapted for one purpose: reproduction. Like other cicadas the males produce a very loud species-specific mating song using their tymbals. Singing males of the same Magicicada species tend to form aggregations called choruses whose collective songs are attractive to females. Males in these choruses alternate bouts of singing with short flights from tree to tree in search of receptive females.[2] Most matings occur in so-called chorus trees.[10]
Receptive females respond to the calls of conspecific males with timed wing-flicks (visual signaling is apparently a necessity in the midst of the males' song) which attract the males for mating.[22] The sound of a chorus can be literally deafening and depending on the number of males composing it, may reach 100dB in the immediate vicinity. In addition to their "calling" or "congregating" songs, males produce a distinctive courtship song when approaching an individual female.[10]
Both males and females can mate multiple times, although most females seem to mate only once [citation needed]. After mating, the female cuts V-shaped slits in the bark of young twigs and lays about 20 eggs in each, for a total clutch of 600 or more. After about 6–10weeks, the eggs hatch and the nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow and begin another 13- or 17-year cycle.
Magicicada nymph emergence holes
Mud turrets that emergent Brood XMagicicada nymphs created in Potomac, Maryland near Washington, D.C. (June 30, 2021)
Brood XIII Magicicada nymph prior to final molt in suburban Chicago (May 24, 2007)
The nymphs emerge in very large numbers at nearly the same time, sometimes more than 1.5 million individuals per acre (>370/m2).[23] Their mass emergence is, among other things, a survival trait called predator satiation. The details of this strategy are simple: for the first week after emergence the periodical cicadas are easy prey for reptiles, birds, squirrels, cats, dogs and other small and large mammals.[7][24] In their present range the periodical cicadas have no effective predators, and all other animals feeding on them after emergence quickly become irrelevant with respect to their impact on total cicada populations.
Early entomologists maintained that the cicadas' overall survival mechanism was simply to overwhelm predators by their sheer numbers, ensuring the survival of most of the individuals. Later, the fact that the developmental periods were each a prime number of years (13 and 17) was hypothesized to be a predator avoidance strategy, one adopted to eliminate the possibility of potential predators receiving periodic population boosts by synchronizing their own generations to divisors of the cicada emergence period.
On this prime number hypothesis, a predator with a three-year reproductive cycle, which happened to coincide with a brood emergence in a given year, will have gone through either four cycles plus one year (12+1) or five cycles plus two years (15+2) by the next time that brood emerges. In this way prime-numbered broods exhibit a strategy to ensure that they nearly always emerge when some portion of the predators they will confront are sexually immature and therefore incapable of taking maximum advantage of the momentarily limitless food supply.[25]
Another viewpoint turns this hypothesis back onto the cicada broods themselves. It posits that the prime-numbered developmental times represent an adaptation to prevent hybridization between broods. It is hypothesized that this unusual method of sequestering different populations in time arose when conditions were extremely harsh. Under those conditions the mutation producing extremely long development times became so valuable that cicadas which possessed it found it beneficial to protect themselves from mating with cicadas that lacked the long-development trait.
In this way, the long-developing cicadas retained a trait allowing them to survive the period of heavy selection pressure (i.e., harsh conditions) brought on by isolated and lowered populations during the period immediately following the retreat of glaciers (in the case of periodical cicadas, the North American Pleistocene glacial stadia). When seen in this light, their mass emergence and the predator satiation strategy that follows from this serves only to maintain the much longer-term survival strategy of protecting their long-development trait from hybridizations that might dilute it.[26]
This hybridization hypothesis was subsequently supported through a series of mathematical models and remains the most widely-accepted explanation for the unusually lengthy and mathematically sophisticated survival strategy of these insects.[27] The length of the cycle was hypothesized to be controlled by a single gene locus, with the 13-year cycle dominant to the 17-year one,[28] but this interpretation remains controversial and unsubstantiated at the level of DNA.
Impact on other populations
Cycles in cicada populations are significant enough to affect other animal and plant populations. For example, tree growth has been observed to decline the year before the emergence of a brood because of the increased feeding on roots by the growing nymphs.[29]Moles, which feed on nymphs, have been observed to do well during the year before an emergence, but suffer population declines the following year because of the reduced food source.[30]Wild turkey populations respond favorably to increased nutrition in their food supply from gorging on cicada adults on the ground at the end of their life cycles. Uneaten carcasses of periodical cicadas decompose on the ground, providing a resource pulse of nutrients to the forest community.[29]
Cicada broods may also have a negative impact. Eastern gray squirrel populations have been negatively affected, because the egg-laying activity of female cicadas damaged upcoming mast crops.[citation needed]
Broods
Periodical cicadas are grouped into geographic broods based on the calendar year when they emerge. For example, in 2014, the 13-year Brood XXII emerged in Louisiana and the 17-year Brood III emerged in western Illinois and eastern Iowa.
In 1907, entomologistCharles Lester Marlatt assigned Roman numerals to 30 different broods of periodical cicadas: 17 distinct broods with a 17-year life cycle, to which he assigned brood numbers I through XVII (with emerging years 1893 through 1909); plus 13 broods with a 13-year cycle, to which he assigned brood numbers XVIII through XXX (1893 through 1905).[31] Marlatt noted that the 17-year broods are generally more northerly than are the 13-year broods.[32]
Many of these hypothetical 30 broods have not been observed. Marlatt noted that some cicada populations (especially Brood XI in the valley of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts and Connecticut) were disappearing, a fact that he attributed to the reduction in forests and the introduction and proliferation of insect-eating "English sparrows" (House sparrows, Passer domesticus) that had followed the European settlement of North America.[33] Two of the broods that Marlatt named (Broods XI and XXI) have become extinct. His numbering scheme has been retained for convenience (and because it clearly separates 13- and 17-year life cycles), although only 15 broods are known to survive.[34]
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan[37][Note 2]
Southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, northern Georgia, Southwestern Virginia and West Virginia, and parts of New York and New Jersey
↑ Reputedly has the largest emergence of cicadas by size known anywhere. A premature emergence occurred in 2020.[39]
↑ Arguably the largest (by geographic extent) of all periodical cicada broods.[40]
↑ This 13-year brood does not include M.neotredecim.
Periodical cicadas that emerge outside the expected time frame are called stragglers. Although they can emerge at any time, they usually do so one or four years before or after most other members of their broods emerge.[44] Stragglers with a 17-year life cycle typically emerge four years early. Those with a 13-year cycle typically emerge four years late.[45] The emergence of stragglers may in theory be indicative of a brood shifting from a 17-year cycle to a 13-year one.[46]
Brood XIII of the 17-year cicada, which reputably has the largest emergence of cicadas by size known anywhere, and Brood XIX of the 13-year cicada, arguably the largest (by geographic extent) of all periodical cicada broods, were expected to emerge together in 2024 for the first time since 1803. However, the two broods were not expected to overlap except potentially in a thin area in central and eastern Illinois (Macon, Sangamon, Livingston, and Logan counties).[47] The next such dual emergence of these two particular broods will occur in 2245, 221 years after 2024. Many other 13-year and 17-year broods emerge during the same years, but the broods are not geographically close.[48]
Map of brood locations
USDA Forest Service map of periodical cicada brood locations by county and timing of next emergence (as of 2024)
Seven recognized species are placed within Magicicada—three 17-year species and four 13-year species. These seven species are also sometimes grouped differently into three subgroups, the so-called Decim species group, Cassini species group, and Decula species group, reflecting strong similarities of each 17-year species with one or more species with a 13-year cycle.[51]
Not only are the periodical cicada life cycles curious for their use of the prime numbers 13 or 17, but their evolution is also intricately tied to one- and four-year changes in their life cycles.[26][28] One-year changes are less common than four-year changes and are probably tied to variation in local climatic conditions. Four-year early and late emergences are common and involve a much larger proportion of the population than one-year changes. The different species are well-understood to have originated from a process of allochronic speciation,[53][54] in which species subpopulations that are isolated from one another in time eventually become reproductively isolated as well.
Research suggests that in extant periodical cicadas, the 13- and 17-year life cycles evolved at least eight different times in the last 4 million years and that different species with identical life cycles developed their overlapping geographic distribution by synchronizing their life cycles to the existing dominant populations.[54] The same study estimates that the Decim species group split from the common ancestor of the Decula plus Cassini species groups around 4million years ago (Mya). At around 2.5Mya, the Cassini and Decula groups split from each other.
The Sota et al. (2013) paper also calculates that the first separation of extant 13-year cicadas from 17-year cicadas took place in the Decim group about 530,000 years ago when the southern M.tredecim split from the northern M.septendecim. The second noteworthy event took place about 320,000years ago with the split of the western Cassini group from its conspecifics to the east. The Decim and the Decula clades experienced similar western splits, but these are estimated to have taken place 270,000 and 230,000years ago, respectively. The 13- and 17-year splits in Cassini and Decula took place after these events.
The 17-year cicadas largely occupy formerly glaciated territory, and as a result their phylogeographic relationships reflect the effects of repeated contraction into glacial refugia (small islands of suitable habitat) and subsequent re-expansion during multiple interglacial periods. In each species group, Decim, Cassini, and Decula, the signature of the glacial periods is manifested in three phylogeographic genetic subdivisions: one subgroup east of the Appalachians, one midwestern, and one on the far western edge of their range.
The Sota et al. data suggest that the founders of the southern 13-year cicada populations originated from the Decim group. These were later joined by Cassini originating from the western Cassini clade and Decula originating from eastern, middle, and western Decula clades. As Cassini and Decula invaded the south, they became synchronized with the resident M.tredecim. These Cassini and Decula are known as M.tredecassini and M.tredecula. More data is needed to lend support to this hypothesis and others hypotheses related to more recent 13- and 17-year splits involving M.neotredecim and M.tredecim.
Distribution
The 17-year periodical cicadas are distributed from the Eastern states, across the Ohio Valley, to the Great Plains states and north to the edges of the Upper Midwest, while the 13-year cicadas occur in the Southern and Mississippi Valley states, with some slight overlap of the two groups. For example, broods IV (17-year cycle) and XIX (13-year cycle) overlap in western Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.[55][56] Their emergences should again coincide in 2219, 2440, 2661, etc., as they did in 1998[57] (although distributions change slightly from generation to generation and older distribution maps can be unreliable[56]).
Although it usually feeds on oak leaf gall midge (Polystepha pilulae) larvae and other insects, the oak leaf gall mite ("itch mite") (Pyemotes herfsi) becomes an ectoparasite of periodical cicada eggs when these are available. After cicadas deposit their eggs in the branches of trees, feeding mites reproduce and their numbers increase.[60]
A Brood X Magicicada with abdominal Massospora cicadina infection in Bethesda, Maryland (May 31, 2021)
After cicada emergences have ended, many people have therefore developed rashes, pustules, intense itching and other mite bite sequelae on their upper torso, head, neck and arms. Rashes and itching peaked after several days, but lasted as long as two weeks. Anti-itch treatments, including calamine lotion and topical steroid creams, did not relieve the itching.[60]
Massospora cicadina is a pathogenic fungus that infects only 13 and 17 year periodical cicadas. Infection results in a "plug" of spores that replaces the end of the cicada's abdomen while it is still alive, leading to infertility, disease transmission, and eventual death of the cicada.[61]
Symbiosis
Magicicada are unable to obtain all of the essential amino acids from the dilute xylem fluid that they feed upon, and instead rely upon endosymbiotic bacteria that provide essential vitamins and nutrients for growth.[62] Bacteria in the genus Hodgkinia live inside periodical cicadas, and grow and divide for years before punctuated cicada reproduction events impose natural selection on these bacteria to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship. As a result, the genome of Hodgkinia has fractionated into three independent bacterial species each containing only a subset of genes essential for this symbiosis. The host requires all three subgroups of symbionts, as only the complete complement of all three subgroups provides the host with all its essential nutrients.[63] The Hodgkinia–Magicicada symbiosis is a powerful example of how bacterial endosymbionts drive the evolution of their hosts.
History
The first known account of a large emergence of cicadas appeared in a 1633 report by William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, which had been established in 1620 within the future state of Massachusetts.[64][65] After describing a "pestilent fever" that had swept through the colony and neighboring Indians, the report stated:
It is to be observed that, the spring before this sickness, there was a numerous company of Flies which were like for bigness unto wasps or Bumble-Bees; they came out of little holes in the ground, and did eat up the green things, and made such a constant yelling noise as made the woods ring of them, and ready to deafen the hearers; they were not any seen or heard by the English in this country before this time; but the Indians told them that sickness would follow, and so it did, very hot, in the months of June, July, and August of that summer.[66][67]
(Elaborating on an observation that Marlatt reported in 1907,[68] Gene Kritsky has suggested that Bradford's report is misdated, as Broods XI and XIV would have emerged in Plymouth in 1631 and 1634, respectively, while no presently known brood would have emerged there in 1633.[69])
Historical accounts cite reports of 15- to 17-year recurrences of enormous numbers of noisy emergent cicadas ("locusts") written as early as 1733.[67][70]John Bartram, a noted Philadelphiabotanist and horticulturist, was among the early writers that described the insect's life cycle, appearance and characteristics.[71]
On May 9, 1715, Andreas Sandel, the pastor of Philadelphia's "Gloria Dei" Swedish Lutheran Church, described in his journal an emergence of Brood X.[72]Pehr Kalm, a Finnish naturalist visiting Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1749 on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, observed in late May another emergence of that brood.[73][74] When reporting the event in a paper that a Swedish academic journal published in 1756, Kalm wrote:
The general opinion is that these insects appear in these fantastic numbers in every seventeenth year. Meanwhile, except for an occasional one which may appear in the summer, they remain underground. There is considerable evidence that these insects appear every seventeenth year in Pennsylvania.[74]
Kalm then described Sandel's report and one that he had obtained from Benjamin Franklin that had recorded in Philadelphia the emergence from the ground of large numbers of cicadas during early May 1732. He noted that the people who had prepared these documents had made no such reports in other years.[74]
Kalm further noted that others had informed him that they had seen cicadas only occasionally before the insects emerged from the ground in Pennsylvania in large swarms on May 22, 1749.[74] He additionally stated that he had not heard any cicadas in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1750 in the same months and areas in which he had heard many in 1749.[74] The 1715 and 1732 reports, when coupled with his own 1749 and 1750 observations, supported the previous "general opinion" that he had cited.
Kalm summarized his findings in a book translated into English and published in London in 1771,[75] stating:
There are a kind of Locusts which about every seventeen years come hither in incredible numbers ... In the interval between the years when they are so numerous, they are only seen or heard single in the woods.[67][76]
Moses Bartram, a son of John Bartram, described the next appearance of the brood (Brood X) that Kalm had observed in 1749 in an article entitled Observations on the cicada, or locust of America, which appears periodically once in 16 or 17 years that he wrote in 1766. Bartram's article, which a London journal published in 1768, noted that upon hatching from eggs deposited in the twigs of trees, the young insects ran down to the earth and "entered the first opening that they could find". He reported that he had been able to discover them 10 feet (3m) below the surface, but that others had reportedly found them 30 feet (9m) deep.[78]
In 1775, Thomas Jefferson recorded in his "Garden Book" Brood II's 17-year periodicity, writing that an acquaintance remembered "great locust years" in 1724 and 1741, that he and others recalled another such year in 1758 and that the insects had again emerged from the ground at Monticello in 1775. He noted that the females lay their eggs in the small twigs of trees while above ground.[79]
The 1780 emergence of the Brood VII cicadas (also known as the Onondaga brood) during the American Revolutionary War, coincided with the aftermath of the military operation known as the Sullivan Expedition which devastated the indigenous Onondagan communities and destroyed their crops. The sudden arrival of such a substantial quantity of the cicadas provided a source of sustenance for the Onondaga people who were experiencing severe food insecurity following the Sullivan campaigns and the subsequent brutal winter.[80] The seemingly miraculous arrival of the cicadas is commemorated by the Onondaga as though it were an intervention by the Creator to ensure their survival after such a traumatizing, catastrophic event.[81]
A Brood X Magicicada with abdominal Massospora cicadina infection in Takoma Park, Maryland (May 31, 2021)
In April 1800, Benjamin Banneker, who lived near Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, wrote in his record book that he recalled a "great locust year" in 1749, a second in 1766 during which the insects appeared to be "full as numerous as the first", and a third in 1783. He predicted that the insects (Brood X) "may be expected again in they year 1800 which is Seventeen Since their third appearance to me".[82] Describing an effect that the pathogenic fungus, Massospora cicadina, has on its host,[83] Banneker's record book stated that the insects:
... begin to Sing or make a noise from first they come out of the Earth till they die. The hindermost part rots off, and it does not appear to be any pain to them, for they still continue on Singing till they die.[84]
In 1845, D.L. Pharas of Woodville, Mississippi, announced the 13-year periodicity of the southern cicada broods in a local newspaper, the Woodville Republican.[32] In 1858, Pharas placed the title Cicada tredecim in a subsequent article that the newspaper published on the subject.[32] Ten years later, the American Entomologist published in December 1868 a paper that Benjamin Dann Walsh and Charles Valentine Riley had written that also reported the 13-year periodicity of the southern cicada broods.[32]
Walsh's and Riley's paper, which Scientific American reprinted in January 1869, illustrated the interior and exterior characteristics of the nymphs' emergence holes and raised turrets.[65] Their article, which did not cite Pharas' reports, was the first to describe the southern cicadas' 13-year periodicity that received widespread attention.[32] Riley later acknowledged Pharas' work in an 1885 publication on periodical cicadas that he authored.[32][85]
Itch mite bites
In 1998, an emergence contained a brood of 17-year cicadas (Brood IV) in western Missouri and a brood of 13-year cicadas (Brood XIX) over much of the rest of the state. Each of the broods are the state's largest of their types. As the territories of the two broods overlap (converge) in some areas, the convergence was the state's first since 1777.[86]
In 2007 and 2008, Edmond Zaborski, a research scientist with the Illinois Natural History Survey, reported that the oak leaf gall mite ("itch mite") (Pyemotes herfsi) is an ectoparasite of periodical cicada eggs. While investigating with the help of others the mysterious itchy welts and rashes that people were developing in Chicago's suburbs after the end of a 2007 Brood XIII emergence, he attributed the event to bites by mites whose populations had quickly increased while parasitizing those eggs.[87] Similar events occurred in Cincinnati after a Brood XIV emergence ended in 2008,[88] in Cleveland and elsewhere in northern and eastern Ohio after a Brood V emergence ended in 2016,[89] in the Washington, D.C., area after a Brood X emergence ended in 2021,[90] and again in the Chicago area after the next Brood XIII emergence ended in 2024.[91]
Use as human food
Magicicada species are edible when cooked for people who lack allergies to similar foods. A number of recipes are available for this purpose. Some recommend collecting the insects shortly after molting while still soft. Others exhibit preferences for emergent nymphs or hardened adults.[92]
The insects have historically been eaten by Native Americans, who fried them or roasted them in hot ovens, stirring them until they were well browned.[93][94] Marlatt wrote in 1907:
The use of the newly emerged and succulent cicadas as an article of human diet has merely a theoretical interest, because, if for no other reason, they occur too rarely to have any real value. There is also the much stronger objection in the instinctive repugnance which all insects seem to inspire as an article of food to most civilized nations. Theoretically, the Cicada, collected at the proper time and suitably dressed and served, should be a rather attractive food. The larvae have lived solely on vegetable matter of the cleanest and most whole-some sort, and supposedly, therefore, would be much more palatable and suitable for food than the oyster, with its scavenger habit of living in the muddy ooze of river bottoms, or many other animals which are highly prized and which have not half so clean a record as the periodical Cicada.[94]
↑ Williams, K. S.; Smith, K. G.; Stephen, F. M. (1993). "Emergence of 13-year periodical cicadas (Cicadidae, Magicicada): phenology, mortality, and predator satiation". Ecology. 74 (4): 1143–1152. Bibcode:1993Ecol...74.1143W. doi:10.2307/1940484. JSTOR1940484.
↑ "Brood IV". Cicadas. Storrs, Connecticut: University of Connecticut. February 21, 2017. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
↑ Schuster, James; Nixon, Philip. "Timed to perfection: Cicada's biological clock determines emergence". Insects: Cicadas. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences: Illinois Extension. Archived from the original on March 10, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024. The northern Illinois brood, which will emerge in late May 2024, has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere. This is due to the size of the emergence and the research and subsequent reporting over the years by entomologists Monte Lloyd and Henry Dybas at the Field Museum in Chicago. During the 1956 emergence, they counted an average of 311 nymphal emergence holes per square yard of ground in a forested floodplain near Chicago. This translates to 1½ million cicadas per acre. In upland sites, they recorded 27 emergence holes per square yard, translating to about 133,000 per acre. This number is more typical of emergence numbers but is still a tremendous number of insects. .... 2020 | Northern Illinois Sub-Brood (part of Marlatt's XIII)
↑ "Brood XIX: The Great Southern Brood". Biodiversity Research Collections: Periodical Cicada Information Pages. Storrs, Connecticut: University of Connecticut. February 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 24, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024. Brood XIX is arguably the largest (by geographic extent) of all periodical cicada broods, with records along the east coast from Maryland to Georgia and in the Midwest from Iowa to Oklahoma.
↑ "Brood XXIII". February 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
↑ "Stragglers". Biodiversity Research Collections: Periodical Cicada Information Pages. Storrs, Connecticut: University of Connecticut. January 25, 2021. Archived from the original on February 26, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
↑ "What are stragglers?". Cicada Mania. June 27, 2015. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024. Typically cicadas with a 17-year life cycle will emerge 4 years early, and cicadas with a 13-year cycle will emerge 4 years late.
"2024 Cicada Forecast". Cicada Mania. February 10, 2024. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024. Both Brood XIX and XIII exist in Macon, Sangamon, Livingston and Logan counties in Illinois. The easily accessible place they come closest to overlapping is Springfield, Illinois, which is in Sangamon County.
Schuster, James; Nixon, Philip. "Timed to perfection: Cicada's biological clock determines emergence". Insects: Cicadas. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences: Illinois Extension. Archived from the original on March 10, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024. The northern Illinois brood, which will emerge in late May 2024, has a reputation for the largest emergence of cicadas known anywhere. This is due to the size of the emergence and the research and subsequent reporting over the years by entomologists Monte Lloyd and Henry Dybas at the Field Museum in Chicago. During the 1956 emergence, they counted an average of 311 nymphal emergence holes per square yard of ground in a forested floodplain near Chicago. This translates to 1½ million cicadas per acre. In upland sites, they recorded 27 emergence holes per square yard, translating to about 133,000 per acre. This number is more typical of emergence numbers but is still a tremendous number of insects.
"The 2024 Periodical Cicada Emergence". Biodiversity Research Collections: Periodical Cicada Information Pages. Storrs, Connecticut: University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024. In 2024, 13-year Brood XIX, which is the largest of all periodical cicada broods, will co-emerge with 17-year Brood XIII; these two broods are adjacent (but not significantly overlapping) in north-central Illinois.
"Brood XIX: The Great Southern Brood". Biodiversity Research Collections: Periodical Cicada Information Pages. Storrs, Connecticut: University of Connecticut. February 21, 2017. Archived from the original on February 24, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024. Brood XIX is arguably the largest (by geographic extent) of all periodical cicada broods, with records along the east coast from Maryland to Georgia and in the Midwest from Iowa to Oklahoma.
Ortiz, Aimee (January 19, 2024). "The World Hasn't Seen Cicadas Like This Since 1803". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2024. Retrieved March 13, 2024. Brood XIX and Brood XIII will both emerge this spring. The last time these bugs showed up at the same time in the United States, Thomas Jefferson was president. After this spring, it'll be another 221 years before the broods, which are geographically adjacent, appear together again.
Matthews, Carys (May 29, 2024). "Cicada double brood event: What to expect as trillions of bugs emerge in Eastern US". Live Science. Archived from the original on June 29, 2024. Retrieved September 1, 2024. Billions, even trillions, of cicadas are going to emerge at the same time across 17 states," Chris Simon, a professor at UConn's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and one of the scientists who runs the database told Life Science. ... Despite the huge volumes of insects set to emerge, the co-emergence of Brood XIII and XIX likely won't look much different from other periodical cicada emergences. That's because, for the most part, they won't emerge from the same locations. There's only a small woodland area in Springfield, Illinois, where the two broods may co-emerge. "The broods won't overlap significantly due to the latitudinal spread involved," John Cooley, founder of the Periodical Cicada Project and a professor in UConn's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, told Live Science. .... It is a rare occurrence for two specific periodical broods of different life cycles to emerge at the same time and overrlap in location. "The co-emergence of any two broods of different cycles is rare, because the cycles are both prime numbers," Cooley said. "Any given 13- and 17-year broods will only co-emerge once every 13 x 17 = 221 years." Despite their geographic proximity, the two broods have not emerged at the same time for 221 years, although many other 13-year and 17-year broods have appeared in the same year. "2015 was the last time a 13-year brood emerged with a 17-year brood, when Brood XXIII emerged with Brood IV. However, the two broods weren't geographically close," Simon told Live Science. "Similarly, adjacent Brood IV and Brood XIX both appeared in 1998 but, again, weren't close.
Broce, Alberto B.; Kalisch, James (October 2007). "Oak leaf itch mite"(PDF). Pests That Affect Human Health. Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service. MF-2806. Archived from the original(PDF) on July 16, 2011.
↑ Hilary Christensen & Marilyn L. Fogel (2011) Feeding ecology and evidence for amino acid synthesis in the periodical cicada (Magicicada). Journal of Insect Physiology 57: 211–219
↑ Jefferson, Thomas (1775). Betts, Edward Morris (ed.). "Thomas Jefferson's garden book, 1766-1824, with relevant extracts from his other writings". Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. 22: 68. LCCN45001776. OCLC602659598. Retrieved May 20, 2017– via Google Books. Dr. Walker sais he remembers that the years 1724 and 1741 were great locust years. we all remember that 1758 was and now they are come again this year of 1775. It appears that they come periodically from the ground once in 17 years. They come out of the ground from a prodigious depth. It is thought they eat nothing while in this state, laying their eggs in the small twigs of trees seems to be their only business. The females make a noise well known. The males are silent.
Barber, Janet E.; Nkwanta, Asamoah (2014). "Benjamin Banneker's Original Handwritten Document: Observations and Study of the Cicada". Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. 4 (1): 112–122. doi:10.5642/jhummath.201401.07. ISSN2159-8118. OCLC700943261. Archived from the original on August 27, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014. Page 115, Fig. 3: Image of page in Benjamin Banneker's Astronomical Journal, 1791-1806. Manuscript written by Benjamin Banneker (MS 2700). Special Collection. Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland: "I like to forget that I inform to report that if their lives are Short they are merry, they begin to Sing or make a noise from first they come out of the Earth till they die. The hindermost part rots off, and it does not appear to be any pain to them, for they still continue on Singing till they die".
Shetlar, Dave (August 29, 2016). "Oak Itch Mites Attack!". Buckeye Yard and Garden Online. Ohio State University Extension, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, Ohio State University. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024. Folks in Northeastern Ohio complain of itchy welts on their heads, neck and upper torso. The oak itch mite, Pyemotes herfsi, has been identified as the culprit. The last time Ohio suffered an outbreak was in 2008 in the Cincinnati area. At that time, walkers, joggers and cyclists were complaining that when they followed trails that were overhung by oak trees, they would end up with itchy welts the following day. At that time, the oak itch mite had been recorded as being a periodic pest from Nebraska to Texas and eastward to Tennessee. The bites were most common in July and August, but the following summer, there were no complaints!
"Cincinnati braces for cicada swarm". The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus, Ohio. April 30, 2008. Archived from the original on September 3, 2024. Retrieved September 3, 2024. Cicadas, those big, noisy, clumsy, red-eyed bugs that periodically swarm sections of Ohio, will be emerging again in just a few weeks. This year's infestation will be the heaviest in Cincinnati-area neighborhoods around and east of I-71, experts say. ... In all, the cicadas will swarm throughout south central Ohio, the entire eastern half of Kentucky and parts of 10 other states. These are the babies of the cicada family named Brood XIV. Known as 17-year cicadas, their last emergence occurred in 1991.
Cooley, John R.; Kritsky, Gene; Edwards, Marten J.; etal. (Fall 2011). "Periodical cicadas Periodical cicadas (Magicicada spp.): A GIS-based map of Broods XIV in 2008 and "XV" in 2009". American Entomologist. 57 (3): 144–150. doi:10.1093/ae/57.3.144. The largest section of Brood XIV was found in a contiguous region roughly occupying portions of the Ohio Valley, part of the Cumberland Plateau, and the mountains to its south and east.
United States Department of Agriculture. "2016 Forest Health Highlights: Ohio"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on January 6, 2023. Retrieved September 1, 2024. Periodical Cicadas: Brood V of the 17-year periodical cicadas emerged across much of eastern Ohio in the spring of 2016. Peak activity for the cicadas was during most of the month of June.
Fisher, Alex (August 28, 2024). "How long should you watch for mite bites in Chicago area?: Across the Chicago area, seemingly mysterious bug bites have been on the rise in recent weeks". NBC 5 Chicago. Chicago, Illinois. Archived from the original on September 2, 2024. Retrieved September 2, 2024. According to cicada expert Dr. Gene Kritsky with Mount St. Joseph University, a particular mite known as the "oak leaf itch mite" can be seen in large amounts following a cicada emergence. Kritsky noted that in 2007, "people in Chicago who had oak trees in the yards, started to complain of bites after the cicada emergence." "It turned out that the oak itch mite was found in the egg nests of Brood XIII cicadas," Kritsky told NBC Chicago. That same brood was one of the two to emerge in Illinois during 2024's historic event, which Kritsky described as "biblical."
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed. Nearly all of cicada species are annual cicadas with the exception of the few North American periodical cicada species, genus Magicicada, which in a given region emerge en masse every 13 or 17 years.
Brood X, the Great Eastern Brood, is one of 15 broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout the eastern United States. The brood's first major emergence after 2021 is predicted to occur during 2038.
Charles Lester Marlatt was an American entomologist who worked in the Bureau of Entomology of the US department of agriculture. He was involved in the creation of Plant Quarantine Act, applications of classical biological control, and recorded the emergence of broods of periodical cicadas across the United States. He also specialized on the systematics of the Tenthredinidae.
Brood XIII is one of 15 separate broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout the midwestern United States. Every 17 years, Brood XIII tunnels en masse to the surface of the ground, mates, lays eggs in tree twigs, and then dies off over several weeks.
Brood XIX is the largest brood of 13-year periodical cicadas, last seen in 2024 across a wide stretch of the southeastern United States. Periodical cicadas are often referred to as "17-year locusts" because most of the known distinct broods have a 17-year life cycle. Brood XIX is one of only three surviving broods with a 13-year cycle. It is also notable because it includes four different 13-year species, one of which was discovered in Brood XIX in 1998 by scientists listening to cicada songs.
Magicicada cassini, known as the 17-year cicada, Cassin's periodical cicada or the dwarf periodical cicada, is a species of periodical cicada. It is endemic to North America. It has a 17-year life cycle but is otherwise indistinguishable from the 13-year periodical cicada Magicicada tredecassini. The two species are usually discussed together as "cassini periodical cicadas" or "cassini-type periodical cicadas." Unlike other periodical cicadas, cassini-type males may synchronize their courting behavior so that tens of thousands of males sing and fly in unison. The species was first reported to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia by Margaretta Morris in 1846. In 1852, the species was formally described by J. C. Fisher and given the specific name cassini in honour of John Cassin, an American ornithologist, whose own report was included by Fisher in his publication.
Magicicada septendecim, sometimes called the Pharaoh cicada or the 17-year locust, is native to Canada and the United States and is the largest and most northern species of periodical cicada with a 17-year lifecycle.
Pyemotes herfsi, also known as the oak leaf gall mite or itch mite, is an ectoparasitic mite identified in Europe and subsequently found in India, Asia, and the United States. The mite parasitizes a variety of insect hosts and bites humans, causing red, itchy, and painful wheals (welts). The mites are barely visible, measuring about 0.2–0.8 millimeters; their great reproductive potential, small size, and high capacity for dispersal by wind make them difficult to control or avoid.
Massospora cicadina is a fungal pathogen that infects only 13 and 17 year periodical cicadas. Infection results in a "plug" of spores that replaces the end of the cicada's abdomen while it is still alive, leading to infertility, disease transmission, and eventual death of the cicada.
Brood XIV is one of 15 separate broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout parts of the midwestern, northeastern, and southeastern United States. Every 17 years, the cicadas of Brood XIV tunnel en masse to the surface of the ground, mate, lay eggs, and then die off in several weeks.
Magicicada neotredecim is the most recently discovered species of periodical cicada. Like all Magicicada species, M. neotredecim has reddish eyes and wing veins and a black dorsal thorax. It has a 13-year life cycle but seems to be most closely related to the 17-year species Magicicada septendecim. Both species are distinguished by broad orange stripes on the abdomen and a unique high-pitched song said to resemble someone calling "weeeee-whoa" or "Pharaoh." They differ only in life cycle length.
Magicicada tredecim is a 13-year species of periodical cicada, closely related to the newly discovered 13-year species Magicicada neotredecim, from which it differs in male song pitch, female song pitch preferences, abdomen color, and mitochondrial DNA. Both M. tredecim and M. neotredecim are closely related to the 17-year species M. septendecim, which was identified by Linnaeus in 1758; these three species are often grouped together under the name decim periodical cicadas.
Decim periodical cicadas is a term used to group three closely related species of periodical cicadas: Magicicada septendecim, Magicicada tredecim, and Magicicada neotredecim. M. septendecim, first described by Carl Linnaeus, has a 17-year life cycle; the name septendecim is Latin for 17. M. tredecim, first described in 1868, has a similar call and appearance but a 13-year life cycle; tredecim is Latin for 13. M. neotredecim, first described in 2000 by Marshall and Cooley in an article in the journal Evolution, is a 13-year species but otherwise much more similar to M. septendecim than to M. tredecim as shown by studies of DNA and abdominal color variation by Chris Simon and colleagues in a companion article in the same journal issue.
The Cassini periodical cicadas are a pair of closely related species of periodical cicadas: Magicicada cassini, having a 17-year life cycle, and Magicicada tredecassini, a nearly identical species with a 13-year life cycle.
Brood II is one of 15 separate broods of Magicicada that appear regularly throughout the northeastern United States. Every 17 years, Brood II tunnels en masse to the surface of the ground, mates, lays eggs, and then dies off over the span of several weeks.
Brood XXII is a brood of 13-year periodical cicadas, last seen in 2014 in a geographic region centered on Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as other locations in southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. Periodical cicadas are often referred to as "17-year locusts" because most of the known distinct broods have a 17-year life cycle. Brood XXII is one of only three surviving broods with a 13-year cycle. The next emergence of The Baton Rouge Brood is expected in 2027.
Brood XI was a brood of periodical cicadas that appeared regularly in the eastern United States. It was one of the smallest 17-year broods, consisting exclusively of the species Magicicada septendecim, and was historically restricted to areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island which appeared to be at the northern limit of the species' range. Brood XI has not been seen since its 1954 emergence and is now generally regarded as extinct.
Brood V is one of twelve extant broods of periodical cicadas that emerge as adults once every 17 years in North America. They are expected to appear in the eastern half of Ohio, the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, the upper two-thirds of West Virginia less the Eastern Panhandle, far western Maryland, and some places in Virginia abutting West Virginia. Also included in Brood V is a population that emerges in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. They last emerged in 2016, and their next appearance will be in 2033.
Brood IX, is one of 15 broods of periodical cicadas that appear regularly throughout the United States in 13 or 17-year intervals. Seventeen-year Brood IX is concentrated in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina.
Brood XXIII is a brood of 13-year periodical cicadas that last emerged in 2015 around the Mississippi River in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, and Illinois. The brood was also seen in Southwestern Indiana and Western Kentucky around the Ohio River, and as far north as Weldon Springs State Park in DeWitt County, Illinois. Brood XXIII is one of three extant periodical cicada broods with a 13-year life cycle, and thus is expected to be seen again in 2028.
Massachusetts Cicadas describes behavior, sightings, photos, "how to find" guide, videos and distribution maps of New England and U.S. periodical and annual cicada species including Brood X, Brood XIII, Brood XIV and Brood XIX
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