Be a Friend to Cicadas What is a cicada?

Thorax Abdomen Head

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Thorax Abdomen Head

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Thomas Shahan

jcantroot What is a cicada?

Thorax Abdomen Head

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Thomas Shahan

jcantroot

Brood X (Ten) How are they different?

Susan Ellis, Bugwood.org Judy Gallagher Periodical Cicadas Dog-day Cicadas ● Nymphs take 13-17 years to develop ● Nymphs take 3-5 years to develop ● Adults emerge synchronously in the spring ● Adults emerge asynchronously ● Huge numbers of adults only during throughout the summer emergence years ● Smaller number of adults every year

Cicada vs. Locust Cicada vs. Locust

● “True Bug” ● A type of grasshopper ● Drinks plant sap ● Eats leaves and stems ● Does not destroy crops ● Destroys crops Where are periodical cicadas? Where are periodical cicadas? Where are the cicadas? Where are the Brood X cicadas? Where are the Brood X cicadas? Brood X SpeciesImages from cicadamania.com

Magicicada septendecim Magicicada cassinii Magicicada septendecula ● largest species ● smallest species ● intermediate size ● abdomen has thick ● abdomen is all ● abdomen has narrow orange stripes black orange stripes ● most common ● least common

Cicada songs lead to mating and egg-laying in the tree branches.

A soft white adult After 6 weeks, tiny emerges from its nymphs drop from the nymphal shell; it soon branches and burrow expands its wings, into the soil to begin darkening and feeding on tree roots. hardening overnight.

Nymphs live underground, alone, feeding on sap from tree roots for 17 years, and molting 4 times. Life Cycles

1 Egg

3 Adult 2 Nymph

Incomplete Metamorphosis Insect Life Cycles

1 Egg 1 Egg

2 Larva 4 Adult 3 Adult 2 Nymph

3 Pupa

Incomplete Metamorphosis Complete Metamorphosis Cicada Life Cycle

Egg = 50 days (<1%) Nymph = 5,972 days (98.5%) Adult = 28 days (0.4%)

Total Lifespan = 6,205 days

If you were born after August 2004, these cicadas are older than you are! Feeding

Image from Marlatt, 1898 Getting Ready... Emergence! Molting into an Adult

Courtship and Mating

Male

Tymbals

Female

Marlatt 1898

Photos by Mike Raupp

Egg-laying and Hatching

From Snodgrass, 1930

Flagging on trees

Eggs in wood slit First instar nymphs Who eats cicadas?

People eat cicadas!

Chocolate-covered cicadas Why are there so many?

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/3/130329-cicadas- Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University coming-sky-locust-swarm--science/ How do cicadas tell time? ? Fungus and Cicadas

What happens to dead cicadas?

continues.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/3/30329-cicadas-coming-sky-l ocust-swarm-animal-science/ Meet the Cicada Team

Diane Lill Dr. John Lill Audubon Naturalist Society George Washington University

Dr. Zoe Getman-Pickering Dr. Martha Weiss George Washington University Georgetown University Learn More!

Digital Notebook www.friendtocicadas.org

Cicada Haiku Contest