It counts to seventeen
The young spend exactly seventeen years underground, then all come up together within a few weeks.
An American yard · Flies and true bugs
Seventeen-year cicada
Magicicada
A black cicada with bright red eyes and clear wings with orange veins.
- Size
- About 3 to 4cm long
- Look for it
- May to June
- Where
- Woods and leafy suburbs of the eastern United States
Buzzes after you, and blunders into things. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Periodical cicada
Good to know
Six things about the periodical cicada
More than a million an acre
So many emerge at once that birds, squirrels and dogs eat until they can't eat anymore, and most cicadas survive.
A clever number
Thirteen and seventeen cannot be divided evenly, which makes it hard for any enemy with a shorter life cycle to keep in step.
As loud as a lawnmower
A chorus of males can reach 100 decibels. People cancel outdoor weddings.
Numbered broods
Different regions have their own broods, each given a Roman numeral, coming up in different years.
Clumsy but harmless
They do not bite or sting. They fly badly and land on anything, including people.
The real thing
Photos of the periodical cicada
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
In an emergence year you cannot miss them: the ground is full of holes, tree trunks are covered in shed skins and the noise is constant.
How to help
They need the same trees to still be there seventeen years later. Paving over a wooded yard ends the brood beneath it.
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