How do cicadas know when to go aboveground?
Learn more about the life cycle of the 17-year cicada.
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Transcript
The 17-year cicada is a variety of the periodical cicada that appears in the northeastern quarter of the United States.
The cicada nymphs hatch from their eggs in trees. After a few days, they fall to the earth and burrow underground, where they spend their time tunneling through dirt and eating the sap from tree roots.
They live that way for 17 years in their nymph form.
After their time is up, the cicada nymphs wait for the soil at eight inches underground to reach 64 degrees Fahrenheit (or 18 degrees Celsius).
Then they emerge from the earth to molt one last time.
They have reached their adult form when their fresh exoskeletons have hardened. They now have about four to six weeks to live.
The adults mate, lay their eggs in trees, and start the process all over again.
But how do the cicadas know that 17 years underground have passed?
No one knows for sure, but scientists speculate that periodical cicadas have an internal molecular clock that allows them to sense the passage of time through changes in the tree sap that they eat.
According to this theory, as trees go through their yearly seasonal cycles, growing and shedding leaves, the cicadas that feed on them are made aware of the years passing.
