Cicada

Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!

Our species this week is the Cicada

Cicadoidea

The cicada is this week’s Wildlife of the Week. We all know by now the constant droning din of millions of cicadas that have emerged in Alabama. Cicadas are emerging across parts of the U.S., including Alabama, for the first time in either 13 or 17 years, depending on which “brood” of cicada is found in a given area. For Alabama, it’s what’s known as the “Great Southern Brood,” (also known as Brood XIX) a brood of cicadas which emerges from the ground every 13 years, with billions of the insects joining the 20 different species of annual cicadas which appear each summer in the state.

Cicadas are about 1 1/2 inches long, with a wingspan double that. They are colorful insects with black bodies, large red eyes and membranous wings with visible orange-colored veins. But the most noticeable feature is the sound. If you’ve spent any time outdoors this spring you’ve heard it, the cacophony that permeates many tree-filled landscapes. The sound is a mating call made by the males via an organ called the tymbal and it can reach annoying levels—up to 100 decibels, the equivalent of a lawnmower.

Although the sound is annoying, the insects themselves are harmless. They don’t bite or sting, don’t eat your flowers and aren’t harmful to pets unless they gorge themselves on them in which case they may get a stomach ache. They feed on roots and tree sap.

The benefits far outweigh the annoying sound. They are an important food source for birds and other animals and the billions of decaying bodies will provide nutrients to the soil.

Alabama is in the midst of the emergence now. They emerge from their underground havens after the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees which means they have been around for about a month now. They mate, the females lay their eggs in trees and the adults die. The babies burrow back into the ground and remain there for 13 or 17 years, depending on the brood. They only remain active above ground for about eight weeks so we will start to notice a gradual lessening of the population.

Humans can eat cicadas. They should be eaten while they are still white in color, before their bodies mature and harden. They reportedly taste like canned asparagus. You’ll have to let us know if that is true.

(Photos by Tom Ress)