Mark Sturtevant has sent us some cicada pictures for today. His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
Early in the 2024 season, several midwestern and southern states in the US had a very special event in the form of two different broods of periodical cicadas that were to have a simultaneous mass emergence.
Periodical cicadas (Magicicada sp.) are classified into several different species, although they all look pretty identical. Some species have a 13-year life cycle, while others have a 17-year life cycle. It was a major bucket-list item for me to see my first such emergence (of 17-year cicadas) a few years earlier, so I knew what to expect. There are several different broods of 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas, and each is given a Roman numeral designation.
The 2024 season was to have brood number XIII (which are 17-year), and brood number XIX (which are 13-year), emerging at the same time and in ranges that abut each other in the state of Illinois. One could see one, do a short drive, and see the other! The last time this simultaneous emergence happened was in 1803. So of course ‘ol Mark took a little vacation in May, drove several hours, and photographed cicadas within screaming forests that were loaded with probably 100,000s’ of the insects.
I started with the more northern brood of 17-year cicadas. Skirting along the southern boundary of Chicago, it was obvious that they were already out there since I could see them flying in large numbers around the cars along the highway.
Here is but one of the 17-year species from a park just south of Chicago.
Here are several of them:
I could see cicadas all the way up in the trees, and up there they were flying back and forth. Everywhere. Here is a cellphone recording that I made, but the sound does not do justice unless you turn it up to LOUD and put the speaker next to your ear.
One detail in the recording is that you can hear some of different kinds of sounds that they make, including the famous “Phaaaaarrroah” song. After I had returned to the silence of a well sound-proofed car, my ears were still ringing.
Here are 13-year cicadas from a park farther to the south. Is there a difference between the species?:
There were signs of predation. It is thought that through mass emergence between long intervals of staying underground, periodical cicadas are able to overwhelm their predators who cannot then adapt to them.
And somewhat finally, I had a 13-year stowaway in the car on the drive back to the hotel. So I picked up a 17-year outside the hotel and stitched together this picture of the two together. According to my notes, the 17-year is on the left, and the 13-year is on the right. I hope that is right! There are small differences, but I don’t know if they are inter- species differences or what.
The safari felt like a bit of an accomplishment, so I got this cool t-shirt to commemorate the event:
There are several websites to help you plan a trip to see one of these wonders of the natural world. Here is a Wikipedia page with information about the several different broods in the U.S., including a map and the years that they are expected.
Of course you may live in the area of one, and then you will have no choice but to enjoy it!
Intriguing – thanks, all the basics are here – a good reference!
… I just double-checked my understanding and yes 19 is XIX because XVIIII is incorrect and IX is 9… yes?…
Makes a banger of a shirt!
Yes. The Roman numerals are cryptic at times.
Brood numbers of periodical cicadas are given Roman numerals by long tradition. Brood XIII (brood 13) are 17-year cicadas, and brood XIX (brood 19) are 13-year cicadas. There are several other broods, each with either 13- or 17-year cycles in the US.
One of nature’s stranger wonders, for sure! Thanks for the visual and audio tour.
I had recently learned more more weird things about cicadas.
1. There are other species of periodical cicadas elsewhere in the world — periodical in that they have synchronized emergence after many years underground.
2. Periodical cicadas aren’t perfectly synchronized. The year before will have some early-birds, and some late arrivals will emerge the year after.
3. The so-called “annual” cicadas are not exactly annual! These are the more familiar species that are seen every year. But these too have very long life cycles, spending many years under ground. Only some emerge every year so we see them annually.
4. There is a fungus that infects the periodical cicadas. After they have emerged, fed, and mated, large numbers of periodical cicadas die of the fungus, but not before their abdomens fall off because of the infection. I’ve not seen that, so it looks like another item for my list.
Cicadas are amazing. You can barely hear yourself think when the trees are thick with these great stridulating beasts. And when it’s all over, the trunks are covered by their cast-off exoskeletons and their remains go crunch under your feet.
Great pictures!
Nice pictures! My daughter (here in New Zealand) took up with a guy from Cincinnati, and was having a long-distance relationship with him. We had planned to go to Ohio to coincide with the Brood X emergence in 2021, but for various reasons that didn’t happen…
But I did get sent a cicada t-shirt, all the way from Cincinnati! It shows three cicadas in different colours, with a Brood X logo.