Can you imagine a life where you reach maturity in the seventeenth year of your life, emerge from underground soil, shed your exoskeleton, and moult into an adult. With strong wings, you fly through the air, mate, then die?
Horrible? Bittersweet? Well, that’s the life of a type of insect called cicada.
The Life Cycle of a Cicada
Billions of cicadas are set to rise up from the ground in parts of North Eastern United States to mate next month. They have been lying in wait since they began life in 1999, and this summer, at the age of 17, they will finally be crawling above ground. What happens next is that these winged insects will mate and die off after about a month.
These 17-year-cicadas include three different species. The other types have a maturity age of one year and thirteen years.
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This year’s cicadas will emerge as nymphs – insects that are not yet mature – once nighttime soil, 20 centimetres below the surface attains a temperature of about 18°C for four days in a row. These nymphs will then climb into trees, shed their exoskeletons and emerge as red-eyed adults, ready to breed.
What Happens After Breeding?
After breeding, the females deposit their rice-shaped eggs in the groove she makes in a tree limb, using her ovipositor. The groove provides shelter and exposes the tree fluids, which the young cicadas feed on.
Once the egg hatches, the cicada begins to feed on the tree fluids. At this point, it looks like a termite or small white ant. Once the young cicada is ready, it crawls from the groove and falls to the ground where it will dig until it finds roots to feed on. Once roots are found, the cicada will stay underground from 1 to 17 years depending on the species. Underground, cicadas are active and feed while in the soil.
After the long 1 to 17 years wait, cicadas emerge from the ground as nymphs, climb the nearest available tree, and begin to shed their nymph exoskeleton. Free of their old skin, their wings will inflate with fluid and their adult skin will harden. Once their new wings and body are ready, they can begin their brief adult life and the cycle is repeated all over again.
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Cicadas eat tree sap but do not cause any significant damage to plants. They also don’t bite or sting, but what people just cannot stand is the incessant noise they make for the brief time that they buzz in the air.
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