Right on schedule, millions of 17-year cicadas will emerge from underground and bring their distinctive mating song to the East Coast.
HAMDEN, Conn. — Colossal numbers of cicadas, unhurriedly growing underground since 1996, are about to emerge along much of the East Coast to begin passionately singing and mating as their remarkable life cycle restarts.
This year heralds the springtime emergence of billions of 17-year periodical cicadas, with their distinctive black bodies, buggy red eyes and orange-veined wings, along a roughly 900-mile stretch from northern Georgia to upstate New York.
The cacophonous mating music they produce, along with the unusual synchronous mass emergence and long development cycles, have amazed scientists and laypeople alike for centuries.