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Cicadas

by Bradon Coy on May 16, 2018

Here is what we are going to pin at my next bug class:




This one we found on our trip to Panama when we were out one night doing something us Entomologists call blacklighting. Blacklighting is when we set up a tarp outside at night time and put a light up above your setup and it attracts all the nocturnal insects to come and check it out. And that's when this little guy came in. This is a Cicada they are a lot like your common house fly but they are a lot prettier and bigger.

But their mating call is unlike any other. They are very interesting in that when they are born they live underground feeding on plant roots they actually live underground longer then they live above it.

When they are all ready to arise from the ground they all come out at once in a huge swarm of billions. In the northern hemisphere, they only swarm every seventeen and thirteen years (notice those are both prime numbers).

At my bug class, we will be pinning the species that is native to Ohio because they just had a massive swarm over there. The date for my bug class is to be determined we are thinking it will be late August early September. I will let my students know as soon as possible.
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