Scientific Names
Annual Cicada - Tibicen chloromera
Periodic Cicada - Magicicada septendecim
Annual Cicada
Cicadas are very loud,
fairly large (25-50mm), destructive insects. There are two types of cicada
in the United States, annual and periodic. Annual are green and periodic are
black and red.
The larvae of a periodic
cicada spend 13-17 years underground. There are seven different types of
periodic cicada species and different varieties of them, those with 13 year
cycles and those with 17 year. Seventeen year cicada can be found widely in
the north and 13 year can be found in the south and midwest. Four species
known today have 13-year life cycles, and three with 17-year cycles.
The larvae of an annual
cicada spend 2-5 years underground. They usually emerge between the months
of July through August.
While
cicada larvae are under ground they
suck root juices from host trees.
Cicada have a unique, and very loud mating call, males use their drum-like
abdomen to produce a loud buzzing sound that sounds like they are singing.
Females make clicking sounds in return. They sing in unison; rising and
falling about 1-2 times per second. Each song lasts about 20 seconds before
fading away. The song of the cicada can be heard almost exclusively at dusk
into the early evening hours. After mating females cut into tree bark to lay
their eggs. Females can lay up to 600 eggs at one time! The eggs remain
under the bark until the fall, when they drop to the ground and burrow down
into the soil and begin sucking the root juices once again. It is during
these underground years that is most destructive to the trees. While
cicada are very destructive to shrubs and trees, they are harmless to
animals and humans. A lot of people call cicada locusts, however they are
not really a locust. Locust are a type of grasshopper. Cicada shed their
skin in intervals as they grow. These skins are often mistakenly called
locust shells.
