After 13 years underground, these cicadas want to spread their wings

Published: April 7, 2011

The 13-year cicadas will emerge from the ground this spring. image by: C. Gorsuch, Clemson University

CLEMSON — It’s been 13 years since we last heard from the great Southern brood. Now it is back, ready to raise a racket and mate. 

The brood is a species of cicadas that periodically tunnels up all at once from tree roots, where they have been maturing, to spend their short-lived adulthoods reproducing. The males make a come-hither call that sounds like a rapidly shaken baby’s rattle rising and falling in pitch and volume.

Clemson University insect scientists want the public's help to track the cicadas in the above-ground phase during April and May.

If you were born after 1998, you are about to meet an ancient insect for the first time in your life, said Eric Benson, an entomologist at Clemson University. Benson also is the “ClemsonCicada” blogger (http://clemsoncicada.wordpress.com/) and Your Day radio co-host of a weekly SCETV radio call-in show about bugs. At noon April 12, he will be part of a live SCETV radio show to talk about the 13-year cicadas.

Cicada tracking can help scientists measure the size and distribution of this year’s turnout of one of 15 periodical cicada groups.

“You can log your observations on the blog and post a comment on the sighting page," said Benson.

“The cicadas we see every year are robust, often two inches long, with a black and green body and dark eyes," he said. "The periodical cicadas are smaller, about one to one-and-a-half inches long, with a dark body and eyes, legs and wings veins reddish orange in color. All cicadas have clear wings that extend past the end of their body.”

For Benson, the periodical cicada’s reddish eyes are the most distinguishing characteristic, not to mention there could be millions of them in South Carolina by the end of April.

The brood’s arrival time can be affected by the weather.

“Cold weather delayed emergence in 1998 and it was less spectacular than in 1985,” according to Benson. 

They make their “music” by flexing their tymbals, which are drum-like structures found on their abdomens, he said. Females make a sound by flicking their wings, but it isn’t the same unique song.

And while they look menacing, cicadas are harmless to pets and people, landing on them only by mistake. If, however, you hold one in your hand, it will buzz, struggle and can give you a little nip, he said.

END