This post is about North American cicadas, the load, irritating buzzing insects. I do not live in the area that is being hit by Brood II this year, but I hope to travel to NJ for a weekend. This is Blience Tuesday #5, continuing my my weekly series. Section #1 of this post will be about the broods. Section #2 will be about their life cycle. Finally, the third section will be about their noise.
Firstly, the broods. There are 15 broods that have been documented recently. Two more were documented, but now are thought to be extinct. Twelve of the fifteen come out every 17 years, the other three come out every 13 years. The brood out now (or coming very soon), brood II, stretches from New York to North Carolina, with a pocket in Georgia. Their are about seven distinct species of cicadas within the genus Magicicada, four of which live for 13 years underground; the other three take 17 years.
Secondly, the life cycle of a cicada. While cicadas are underground, they feed on plant roots. They molt five times while underground. When they emerge, they climb up a plant and shed their skin once more. Then, the males start making the buzzing-humming-vibrating song, which is used to attract females. the females cut slit in tree branches, were the lay their eggs. The eggs hatch and nymphs fall down into the dirt and bury themselves. Go back to first line of this paragraph.
Finally, their song. The noise is only from males, not the entire population. It is used to attract a mate. The noise comes from the cicada's tymbal, or the bumpy part of their exoskeleton. There are actually three songs, one being a "weeeeee-whoa"-like sound, whereas the others are more like clicking and buzzing.
Thanks for reading!
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas
http://www.magicicada.org/about/species_pages/species.php
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