17 year cicada

This page features information about common cicadas of Australia researchers, and websites dedicated to the cicadas of Australia. Australia has the best cicada names! Bladder Cicada (Cystosoma saundersii) The Bladder Cicada can be sound in eastern Queensland & NSW1, can be found September-January, peaking in October2. It is called a Bladder Cicada because of its...

Emerging from the ground for the first time since 1997, the cicada will become part of our lives for the next few weeks. Mature nymphs surface after maturing over a 17-year period and climb nearby vegetation or structures. They soon molt into winged adults leaving behind their outer skins. Male cicadas will sing to attract females. Cicadas can’t chew so they feed on sap. Best yet, they do not sting nor bite. Photo by Ed Rood/Special to the Ames Tribune

As cicadas overrun signs, lawns and porches across the region, most homeowners seem resigned to wait out the few weeks of infestation.

Cicadas are both fascinating and complex in their looks, their variety (more than 3,300 species worldwide ) and their life cycle—there are both annual and "periodic" types, which appear only in certain years, based on a biological cycle. Cicadas reside underground for anywhere from one to 17 years, feeding on roots, before emerging as nymphs that go on to shed their exoskeleton (as some of these photos show) and become adults (in many species they live no more than a month in that stage).

If you live in Indiana, western Ohio, eastern Pennsylvania, or roughly anywhere around the D.C. area, get ready for a rare and bizarre phenomenon this

Following a 17-year period of underground development, periodical cicadas are set to burst above ground in the coming days and weeks, with three states in particular expected to be hotspots for the bugs to emerge and sing their own song of summer. Periodical cicadas can appear in 17 or 13-year intervals and cicadas of...