Word has it you've got some new neighbors. Red eyes, six legs, noisy. The 17-year cicadas—AKA Magicicada Brood II—are now on view along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard at a tree near you. So let's get insecta-gramming! Though this brood has been growing under our feet since the '90s, they'll be here and gone faster than you can text PHOTO-OP.
If a swarm has moved into your backyard or a chorus of males is serenading you at a local park, we want to see them. Here's how to help document this wildlife spectacle, and add your pics to our cicada map.
Magicicada Brood II are one of the longest living insects in the world. They emerge by the billions once every 17 years along the East Coast. We won't see them again until 2030.
In their underground burrows, magicicada nymphs live off juicy tree roots. They look like small, white ants.
One night, after 17 years spent underground and when the soil sustains a temperature of 64 degrees, they surface.
The nymphs climb a tree, dig in their claws, and transform. They shed their shells, spread their four wings, and darken.
The next morning, the cicadas take flight. Males sing to females, and mating begins. Within 6 weeks, they die.
After hatching from their eggs, the next generation burrows into the ground, and the process begins again.
"Bigger creatures tend to dominate the spotlight. The fascinating cicada life cycle returns our gaze to the microcosmos beneath our feet."
—Craig Gibbs, entomologist and assistant curator at the Wildlife Conservative Society's Queens Zoo, writing for the New York Times