'Periodical #cicadas are unique insects that have a 13-year or a 17-year life cycle, most of which they spend underground. They come to the surface in groups that scientists call broods.
Each brood with its descendants is named in a Roman number. This year, Brood XIX and Brood XIII are emerging together. The last time these particular broods emerged in the same year was two centuries ago in 1803.
...
This is what they sound like'
"Stranger than science fiction." That's how an ecologist describes a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior, turning them into "zombies."
CNN reports on the the fungus Massospora cicadina and how it's impacting some of the cicadas emerging this year: https://flip.it/cxfw5K
#Cicadas rising: A visual guide to #2024’s rare dual appearance
The cicadas are coming. This year is unique, because there are two #broods that are arriving at the same time in the midwestern and southeastern #UnitedStates. Usually it’s just one at a time. CNN has a visual guide for where the cicadas will be and why they’re here now. Basically, one brood emerges every 13 years and the other every 17, and there’s overlap. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/04/us/periodical-cicada-2024-visual-guide-scn-dg/
After trillions of periodical cicadas emerged from years of burrowing in the U.S. last month, scientists are hoping to capitalize on the rare event by studying the effects the insects have on the food chain. Brood XIII and Brood XIX are loudly buzzing across America together for the first time since 1803, making 2024 a year of plentiful food for for snakes, spiders, birds, and even some mammals. But what happens when this all-you-can-eat buffet doesn’t come back next year? The BBC has more.
🧵Signs of the 17-year #cicadas are already showing up in #Elmhurst#Illinois. The city is a 25-min drive west of #Chicago and had overwhelming numbers of these cicadas in 2006 and 1989. This year, sections of the state will also be hit with a 13-year brood, an event that hasn't happened since 1803.
If you're wondering if you might be seeing them near you, this is what to look for in the soil.
Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon. It’s the biggest bug emergence for North America in centuries.
AP reports: "Crawling out from underground every 13 or 17 years, with a collective song as loud as jet engines, the periodical cicadas are nature’s kings of the calendar."