Brood X: The lives and encounters of America’s largest group of cicadas

Brood X: The lives and encounters of America’s largest group of cicadas

Subject: Environment

Context: US President Joe Biden’s first trip abroad was delayed unexpectedly when a swarm of cicadas bombarded the plane Air Force One, which was about to take off for the UK. Biden had to swat a cicada away when it landed on him at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

Concept:

• Swarms of these insects have been spotted in a number of American states. These are part of a group named Brood X, based on their life cycles and periodic appearances.
• The cicadas in Brood X number in billions and come out of their underground homes every 17 years.

Brood X

• Brood X are the biggest of the fifteen known Cicadas. They are now to emerge in Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Washington DC, Indiana. Cicadas molt as they emerge from underground.
• Molt is to shed skin or hair or feathers paving way for the new growth. The molts add up nutrients to he soil. The total biomass of cicadas is greater then the biomass of cattle the area can support if it were to turned into pastures.
• There are more than three thousand Cicadas on the earth. However, only seven are periodical. Some believe that the long underground periods are to avoid predators.

Cicadas

• As they emerge from the underground, they live in trees feeding on leaves. The desert Cicadas regulate their body temperatures by evaporative cooling. Evaporative coiling is similar to sweating.