Periodical cicadas

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Automatic taxobox

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.<ref name=magiiii>Template:Cite web</ref> Magicicada belongs to the cicada tribe Lamotialnini, a group of genera with representatives in Australia, Africa, and Asia, as well as the Americas.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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 broadleaf forest trees in the eastern United States.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In the spring of their 13th or 17th year, mature cicada nymphs emerge between late April and early June (depending on latitude), synchronously and in tremendous numbers.<ref name="Mania">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Field">Template:Cite web</ref> The adults are active for only about four to six weeks after the unusually prolonged developmental phase.<ref name="Williams">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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 17 years.

Periodical emergences are also reported for the "World Cup cicada" Chremistica ribhoi (every 4 years)<ref name="Hajong and Yaakop ref">Template:Cite journal</ref> in northeast India and for a cicada species from Fiji, Raiateana knowlesi (every 8 years).<ref name="Simon et al. 2022">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Description

File:Many cicadas 2004 hi.ogv
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.<ref name=species>Template:Cite web</ref>

Adults are typically Template:Convert, 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.<ref name="encycent">Template:Cite book</ref>

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".<ref name=nature>Template:Cite web</ref> The cassini and decula periodical cicadas (including M. tredecula) have songs that intersperse buzzing and ticking sounds.<ref name=encycent/>

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.<ref>Multiple sources:

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.<ref name=cook>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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 Template:Convert in diameter or smaller to prevent damage during the oviposition period,<ref>Multiple sources:

Life cycle

File:Snodgrass periodical cicada transformation.png
Transformation from mature nymph to adult
File:Cicada Final Molt and Darkening timelapse 14 2021-05-27.webm
Time-lapse of final molt and darkening, over 4.5 hours
File:17Year cicada chaos.webm
Emergence! Nearly all at once. Many do not survive, but with mass emergence, many will reach maturity to start the next generation.
File:17year cicada adults.webm
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 17 years.

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 1 year. This is incorrect. The few known life cycles of "annual" species range from two to 10 years, although some could be longer.Template:Citation needed

The nymphs of the periodical cicadas live underground, usually within Template:Convert of the surface, feeding on the juices of plant roots.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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 16 years instead of 17.<ref name="Simon et al. 2022"/>

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.<ref name=Williams/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In some situations, nymphs extend mud turrets up to several inches above the soil surface.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The function of these turrets is not known, but the phenomenon has been observed in some nonperiodical cicadas, as well as other tunneling insects.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The nymphs first emerge on a spring evening when the soil temperature at around Template:Convert of depth is above Template:Convert. The crepuscular emergence is thought to be related to the fact that maximum soil temperatures lag behind maximum insolation by several hours, 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.<ref name=magiiii/> Most matings occur in so-called chorus trees.<ref name=species/>

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.<ref name=wingflick>Template:Cite web</ref> The sound of a chorus can be literally deafening and depending on the number of males composing it, may reach 100 dB in the immediate vicinity. In addition to their "calling" or "congregating" songs, males produce a distinctive courtship song when approaching an individual female.<ref name=species />

Both males and females can mate multiple times, although most females seem to mate only once Template: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 6–10 weeks, the eggs hatch and the nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow and begin another 13- or 17-year cycle.

Predator satiation survival strategy

Template:Further

The nymphs emerge in very large numbers at nearly the same time, sometimes more than 1.5 million individuals per acre (370 individuals per m2).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Their mass emergence is, among other things, an adaptation called predator satiation. Although periodical cicadas are easy prey for reptiles, birds, squirrels, cats, dogs and other small and large mammals,<ref name="Williams"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> there are after synchronized emergence simply too many individuals for the predators to consume; many individuals thus remain behind to procreate.

It has been hypothesized that the prime-number development times (13 and 17 years) improve avoidance of predators with shorter reproductive cycles and for this reason have been selected for. A predator with, for example, a three-year reproductive cycle, which happened to benefit from 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 the same brood emerges. In this way cicada generations 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

A second hypothesis posits that the prime-numbered developmental times are an adaptation that prevents hybridization between broods. Under extremely harsh conditions, mutations producing extremely long development times are selected for. A mechanism, such as reproducing only after prime-numbered intervals, that reduces the frequency of cicadas mating with cicadas that may lack the long-development trait will also be selected for. The North American Pleistocene glacial stadia are instances of such extremely harsh conditions. On this hypothesis, predator satiation reinforces a longer-term survival strategy of protecting the long-development trait from hybridizations that might dilute it.<ref name="Cox, R. T., and C. E. Carlton 1988 183–193">Template:Cite journal</ref> This hypothesis has been supported by mathematical modeling.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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,<ref name="Cox, R. T., and C. E. Carlton 1991 63–74">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name="Yang" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Yang">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 a 1907 journal article, entomologist Charles 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).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Marlatt noted that the 17-year broods are generally more northerly than are the 13-year broods.<ref name=Marlatt3>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=post>Template:Cite web</ref>

Name Nickname Cycle (yrs) Last emergence Next emergence Extent
Template:Sort Blue Ridge brood 17 2012 2029 Western Virginia, West Virginia
Template:Sort East Coast brood 17 2013 2030 Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, District of Columbia
Template:Sort Iowan brood 17 2014 2031 Iowa
Template:Sort Kansan brood 17 2015 2032 Eastern Nebraska, southwestern Iowa, eastern Kansas, western Missouri, Oklahoma, north Texas<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Sort 17 2016 2033 Eastern Ohio, Western Maryland, Southwestern Pennsylvania, Northwestern Virginia, West Virginia, New York (Suffolk County)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Sort 17 2017 2034 Northern Georgia, western North Carolina, northwestern South Carolina
Template:Sort Onondaga brood 17 2018 2035 Central New York (Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Ontario, Yates counties)<ref group="Note">Consists only of M. septendecim</ref>
Template:Sort 17 2019 2036 Eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia
Template:Sort 17 2020 2037 southwestern Virginia, southern West Virginia, western North Carolina
Template:Sort Great eastern brood 17 2021 2038 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref group="Note">A premature emergence occurred in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref></ref>
Template:Sort 17 1954 Template:N/a Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island. Last seen in 1954 in Ashford, Connecticut along the Fenton River
Template:Sort Northern Illinois brood 17 2024 2041 Northern Illinois and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana<ref group="Note">Reputedly has the largest emergence of cicadas by size known anywhere. A premature emergence occurred in 2020.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref></ref>
Template:Sort 17 2025 2042 Southern Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, northern Georgia, Southwestern Virginia and West Virginia, and parts of New York and New Jersey
Template:Sort Great Southern Brood 13 2024 2037 Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia<ref group="Note">Arguably the largest (by geographic extent) of all periodical cicada broods.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref></ref>
Template:Sort Floridian Brood 13 1870 Template:N/a Last recorded in 1870, historical range included the Florida panhandle<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Template:Sort Baton Rouge Brood<ref name=broodXXII>Template:Cite web</ref> 13 2014 2027 Louisiana, Mississippi<ref group="Note">This 13-year brood does not include M. neotredecim.</ref>
Template:Sort Mississippi Valley Brood<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 13 2015 2028 Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee

Template:Reflist

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Stragglers with a 17-year life cycle typically emerge four years early. Those with a 13-year cycle typically emerge four years late.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The emergence of stragglers may in theory be indicative of a brood shifting from a 17-year cycle to a 13-year one.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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).<ref>Multiple sources:

Map of brood locations

County-by-county map showing the locations of cicada broods, published May 2013
USDA Forest Service map of periodical cicada brood locations by county and timing of next emergence (as of 2024)

Taxonomy

Phylogeny

Magicicada is a member of the cicada tribe Lamotialnini, which is distributed globally aside from South America. Despite Magicicada being only found in eastern North America, its closest relatives are thought to be the genera Tryella and Aleeta from Australia, with Magicicada being sister to the clade containing Tryella and Aleeta.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Within the Americas, its closest relative is thought to be the genus Chrysolasia from Guatemala.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Species

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.<ref name=ngspecies>Template:Cite web</ref>

17-year cycle Species
group 		13-year cycle
Image Scientific name Common name Distribution Image Scientific name Common name Distribution
File:2013 05-23 IMG 9586 (3).jpg M. septendecim
(Linnaeus, 1758) 		17-year locust,
Pharaoh cicada 		Canada,
United States 		Decim File:Magicicada tredecim.jpg M. tredecim
(Walsh & Riley, 1868) 		Southeastern
United States
M. neotredecim
Marshall & Cooley, 2000 		United States
File:Magicicada cassini (17-year periodical cicada) (Flint Ridge, Ohio, USA) (27294270804).jpg M. cassini <ref name="Marshall 2022">Template:Cite journal [open access]</ref>
(Fisher, 1852) 		17-year cicada,
dwarf periodical cicada 		United States Cassini File:Magicicada tredecassini NC XIX male dorsal trim.jpg M. tredecassini
Alexander & Moore, 1962 		United States
File:Magicicada septendecula male (Brood IX) - journal.pone.0000892.g003C.png M. septendecula
Alexander & Moore, 1962 		United States Decula File:Magicicada tredecula Brood XIX 11.US.IL.DAS.jpg M. tredecula
Alexander & Moore, 1962 		United States

Evolution and speciation

Template:See also 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.<ref name="Cox, R. T., and C. E. Carlton 1988 183–193" /><ref name="Cox, R. T., and C. E. Carlton 1991 63–74" /> 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,<ref>Multiple sources:

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.<ref name="Sota Yamamoto 2013"/> The same study estimates that the Decim species group split from the common ancestor of the Decula plus Cassini species groups around 4 million years ago (Mya). At around 2.5 Mya, 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 320,000 years 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 230,000 years 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Simon2009">See Figure 1, p. 107 in Template:Cite journal</ref> Their emergences should again coincide in 2219, 2440, 2661, etc., as they did in 1998<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (although distributions change slightly from generation to generation and older distribution maps can be unreliable<ref name="Simon2009"/>).

An effort sponsored by the National Geographic Society is underway as of April 2021 at the University of Connecticut to generate new distribution maps of all periodical cicada broods.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The effort uses crowdsourced data and records that entomologists and volunteers collect.<ref>Multiple sources:

Parasites, pests and pathogens

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.<ref name=mite>Multiple sources:

File:Cicada with extensive abdomen fungus 2021-05-31 093621 1 crop.jpg
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.<ref name=mite/>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>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</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Hodgkinia–Magicicada symbiosis is a powerful example of how bacterial endosymbionts drive the evolution of their hosts.

History

Marlatt wrote in his 1907 journal article that the earliest published account of the periodical cicada which had come under his observation appeared in a 1666 issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,<ref name=Marlatt3/> which at the time had the name Philosophical Transactions.<ref name=Transactions>Template:Cite journal</ref> The account stated:

A great Observer, who hath lived long in New England, did upon occasion, relate to a Friend of his in London, where he lately was, That some few Years since there was such a swarm of a certain sort of Insects in that English Colony, that for the space of 200 Miles they poyson'd and destroyed all the Trees of that Country; there being found innumerable little holes in the ground, out of which those Insects broke forth in the form of Maggots, which turned into Flyes that had a kind of taile or sting, which they struck into the Tree, and thereby envenomed and killed it.<ref name=Transactions/>

Marlatt also wrote that the next report of the cicada appeared in a work entitled New-Englands Memoriall, which was printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1669. After describing a "pestilent fever" that had swept through the Plymouth Colony and neighboring Indians in 1633, the New-Englands Memoriall's account 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.<ref name=Marlatt3/><ref>Multiple sources:

Template:Cite book

(Elaborating on an observation that Marlatt had reported in 1907,<ref name=Marlatt3/> Gene Kritsky suggested in 2001 that the account of the 1633 emergence 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. Kritsky also noted that William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, had reportedly written in 1633 the same account of the cicada emergence that the New-Englands Memoriall published in 1669.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, a reprint of Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation: 1606-1646 contains a different account of that emergence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>)

Historical accounts cite reports of 15- to 17-year recurrences of enormous numbers of noisy emergent cicadas ("locusts") written as early as 1733.<ref name=Marlatt1907>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Dudley, Paul (1733). Periodical Revolutions. Additional Manuscripts 4433, Folios 4-11, Division of Manuscripts of the British Library, London. Cited in Template:Cite book</ref> John Bartram, a noted Philadelphia botanist and horticulturist, was among the early writers that described the insect's life cycle, appearance and characteristics.<ref>Multiple sources:

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Davis">Template:Cite journal Republished by Template:Cite web</ref> When reporting the event in a paper that a Swedish academic journal published in 1756, Kalm wrote: Template:Blockquote

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.<ref name=Davis/>

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.<ref name=Davis/> 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.<ref name=Davis/> 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,<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref> stating:

Template:Blockquote

Based on Kalm's account and a specimen that Kalm had provided, in 1758 Carl Linnaeus named the insect Cicada septendecim in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.<ref name=species/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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 Template:Convert below the surface, but that others had reportedly found them Template:Convert deep.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Massospora cicadina 134742368.jpg
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".<ref>Multiple sources:

  • Latrobe, pp. 11–12.
  • Template:Cite journal 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: "The first great Locust year that I can Remember was 1749. ....".</ref> Describing an effect that the pathogenic fungus, Massospora cicadina, has on its host,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Multiple sources:

  • Latrobe, p. 12.
  • Template:Cite journal 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".</ref>

In 1845, Dr. D.L. Pharas of Woodville, Mississippi, announced the 13-year periodicity of the southern cicada broods in a local newspaper, the Woodville Republican.<ref name=Marlatt3/> In 1858, Pharas placed the title Cicada tredecim in a subsequent article that the newspaper published on the subject 13 years later.<ref name=Marlatt3/>

Ten years afterwards, Benjamin Dann Walsh and Charles Valentine Riley authored a paper that the American Entomologist published in December 1868 which also reported the 13-year periodicity of the southern cicada broods. Walsh and Riley "for convenience sake", named the 13-year brood Cicada tredecim, in contradistinction to Cicada septemdecim, the 17-year brood.<ref name=Marlatt3/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Walsh's and Riley's paper, which Scientific American reprinted with some revisions in January 1869, illustrated the interior and exterior characteristics of the nymphs' emergence holes and raised turrets.<ref name=13year>Template:Cite journal</ref> Their articles, which did not cite Pharas' reports, were the first to describe the southern cicadas' 13-year periodicity that received widespread attention.<ref name=Marlatt3/> Riley later acknowledged Pharas' work in an 1885 publication on periodical cicadas that he authored.<ref name=Marlatt3/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Bite of Pyemotes herfsi.jpg
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.<ref>Multiple sources:

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.<ref>Multiple sources:

</ref> in Cleveland and elsewhere in northern and eastern Ohio after a Brood V emergence ended in 2016,<ref>Multiple sources:

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.<ref>Multiple sources:

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.<ref>Template:Cite journal Republished by Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Marlatt07>Template:Cite book</ref> Marlatt wrote in 1907:

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Notes

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References

Further reading

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