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"  1. They&amp;#039;re children of 1998. The periodical cicadas emerging this summer are 13-year cicadas that were born in 1998\u2014when Armageddon dominated the box office and the Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated the news\u2014and have been laying low ever since. Periodical cicadas emerge every 13 or 17 years, but their life cycles are staggered, so it won&amp;#039;t be the same 13- (or 17-) year period for each area. The 13-year cicadas are concentrated in the South, while the 17-year cicadas dwell in the Northeast.  2. Why 13- and 17-year periods? And how do cicadas count to 13 or 17? No one knows for sure. Some researchers think these periods evolved because they helped cicadas avoid predators, or to avoid hybridization between species. And the fact that 13 and 17 are both prime numbers has proved enticing to the kinds of minds that see mathematical connections everywhere. 3. Cicadas spend the vast majority of their lives underground sucking out tree sap from the roots of trees. Keith Clay is a biology professor at Indiana University who has studied periodical cicadas for years. &amp;quot;They may spend 17 years within 1 foot of where they started,&amp;quot; he says. During this extended childhood, cicadas are protected from almost everything\u2014except bulldozers. Because of this, if you live in an area with recent construction or freshly cleared fields, you might see fewer cicadas than your more established neighbors.  4. This may also be the reason that periodical cicadas are found only in the eastern United States\u2014the treeless expanse of the Great Plains provides a very effective environmental barrier to these tree-loving critters. 5. Broods are like cicada tribes. A brood of cicadas contains billions of insects that have synchronized life cycles. They&amp;#039;re born at the same time, emerge at the same time and die at roughly the same time. There are 15 broods known to exist at this time, defined by the year and geographic territory where they emerge. This year&amp;#039;s group is called Brood XIX. 6. You might be wondering why they&amp;#039;re called Brood XIX when there are only a total of 15 broods. It&amp;#039;s a quirk of the classification scheme: There were once 30 identified cicada broods, but half of those either went extinct or were deemed part of an existing brood. The brood total was cut in half, but the system was never renumbered, so the original roman numerals are still in widespread use.  7. There are seven different species of periodical cicadas. Three of these are 17-year cicadas and four are 13-year cicadas. And to make the system even more confusing, broods often contain multiple species. There is some academic debate as to how closely related the species are; in some cases they&amp;#039;re so similar that the only apparent difference is whether they&amp;#039;re on a 13- or 17-year cycle.  8. Almost every year, some part of the United States sees a cicada invasion. This year&amp;#039;s brood (Brood XIX) is the most widespread brood of 13-year cicadas, is emerging in 15 states. In 2012, Brood I will emerge in Virginia and West Virginia. In 2013, Brood II will emerge from North Carolina to Connecticut, and in 2014, we get a double whammy as Brood III emerges in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, and Brood XXII emerges in Louisiana and Mississippi. You get the picture. In fact, the U.S. doesn&amp;#039;t get a break from these periodical cicadas until 2022 and 2023, when no periodical cicadas are expected to emerge. &amp;quot;There are very few big gaps,&amp;quot; according to John Cooley, a cicada researcher with the University of Connecticut. 9. It&amp;#039;s in the eyes. Most periodical cicadas have bright red eyes of a nearly demonic hue, but a few have striking variations. Blue and white eyes make up a miniscule percentage of the population, but there are just so many cicadas that it&amp;#039;s not uncommon to spot one among the millions swarming outside. If you see green- or black-eyed cicadas, you&amp;#039;ve spotted the annual variety\u2014they belong to an entirely different genus. They are larger than the periodical cicadas and appear later in the summer.  10. Definitely not locusts: In many parts of the United States, people refer to periodical cicadas as locusts. But that&amp;#039;s a misnomer. Cicadas have no connection to locusts, which are actually ravenous grasshoppers. The confusion started with European settlers who had no idea what cicadas were, but were terrified and confused by these odd flying insects, and called them locusts, probably inspired by biblical plagues of Egypt.  11. Only male cicadas make noise. They have organs called tymbals on both sides of their abdomen. They contract and relax the tymbals rapidly to generate the characteristic clicking buzz, which is amplified by the mostly hollow abdomen. The males sing in concert, all trying to win over their silent female audience. 12. Cicadas won&amp;#039;t hurt your flowers, but they might hurt very young trees. Damage occurs when the female cicada lays her eggs inside the bark. This doesn&amp;#039;t harm mature trees, but it can severely damage or kill young saplings. To protect your newly planted greenery, cover them with a light fabric such as cheesecloth until the cicadas die. 13. Older trees can not only withstand cicadas, they also record the cicada emergence in their tree rings. &amp;quot;The wood forms a permanent record,&amp;quot; Clay says. &amp;quot;It is possible to detect a periodicity in the annual tree rings corresponding to the 13- or 17-year cicadas.&amp;quot; 14. Cicadas won&amp;#039;t hurt you\u2014at least not too much. They can pinch, a sensation often mistaken for a bite. &amp;quot;They have little spines on their legs so they can land on the side of a tree,&amp;quot; Clay says. This may hurt a little, but cicadas have no stinger or other defense mechanism. And they certainly won&amp;#039;t bite, because cicadas don&amp;#039;t have the mouthparts to bite. If a cicada does land on you, don&amp;#039;t panic. They&amp;#039;ll land on any surface, Cooley says. 15. Cicadas make a tasty treat. Other animals know it; they love to devour these bugs. &amp;quot;Basically all wildlife just stops what they&amp;#039;re doing and gorges themselves on cicadas&amp;quot; Clay says. Like many insects, cicadas are excellent sources of protein, and people can eat them unless they&amp;#039;re allergic to shellfish\u2014crabs, lobsters and insects, including cicadas, are all arthropods. If you&amp;#039;re not allergic, though, chow down. Clay has eaten them saut\u00E9ed in butter, and says that they taste like asparagus, with a texture slightly softer than shrimp. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a6823/15-things-you-didnt-know-about-cicadas/>