Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Cicada Invasion

In the next few weeks Brood X cicadas will emerge from underground as part of their 17-year life cycle. They will fly up to the trees, mate and from my childhood memory, make a ton of noise. This charming 1919 map from the US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology shows the distribution of this brood then - via Cicada Mania.

The University of Connecticut has an updated, interactive map showing a very similar distribution. I guess they don't like the northern Appalachians.
The large cicada symbols are verified records while the smaller ones have a lower degree of certainty.

A huge swath of the country is about to get noisy!



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