Periodical Cicada

Periodical cicadas, genus Magicicada, are true bugs in the order Hemiptera renowned for one of the most extraordinary life cycles in the insect world. Found only in eastern and central North America, these cicadas spend either 13 or 17 years as underground nymphs before emerging synchronously in enormous numbers, an event tied to specific geographically mapped "broods."

Unlike the annual cicadas heard every summer, periodical cicadas appear only once per cycle in a given area, producing brief but overwhelming emergences where millions of individuals surface, molt, sing, mate, and die within a span of a few weeks.

Ecologically, these mass emergences provide a substantial, temporary food pulse for birds, mammals, and other predators, while the nymphs' long underground tenure feeding on tree root fluids links them closely to forest root systems over multi-year cycles.

• Stout-bodied cicada with a black dorsal thorax and abdomen, contrasting with distinctive bright red compound eyes.
• Wings are transparent with prominent orange-red veins, held tent-like over the back at rest.
• Legs are orange to reddish-brown.
• Smaller and darker overall than most annual (dog-day) cicadas, which tend to be larger with green or brown mottled coloring.
• Best identified by mass, synchronized emergence in spring (typically May) in areas with a documented periodical cicada brood, rather than scattered individual sightings through summer.

Periodical cicadas inhabit deciduous forests, wooded parks, and tree-lined suburban neighborhoods across the eastern and midwestern United States, wherever host trees have been undisturbed long enough for a brood's multi-year cycle to persist. Nymphs live underground near tree roots for the majority of their lives, while adults are active above ground for only a few weeks in late spring to early summer during an emergence year.

Underground nymphs feed on xylem fluid from tree roots using piercing-sucking mouthparts, a slow-growing diet that supports their many years of subterranean development. Upon emergence, adults climb onto vertical surfaces such as tree trunks, molt from their nymphal exoskeleton, and males produce loud, synchronized courtship calls using specialized abdominal structures called tymbals to attract females. After mating, females use a saw-like ovipositor to cut slits into tree twigs where they lay eggs. Predators including birds and mammals feed heavily on emerging cicadas, but the insects rely on overwhelming numbers (predator satiation) to ensure enough individuals survive to reproduce.

Periodical cicadas undergo incomplete metamorphosis (egg, multiple nymphal instars, adult). Eggs hatch after several weeks, and the tiny first-instar nymphs drop to the ground and burrow underground to begin feeding on root fluids. Nymphs pass through five instars over a fixed period of either 13 or 17 years depending on the species group, feeding continuously on root xylem. In their final year, mature nymphs tunnel to the surface, emerge en masse, molt into winged adults, and live only a few weeks above ground to mate and lay eggs before dying, completing one exceptionally long generation.