Nature: The Life Cyle Of A Unique Type Of Cicadas Called The Periodic Cicadas

Cicadas, are insects that look exactly like locusts, Cicadas can be found in all continents except Antarctica. But there is a type of Cicadas that is mostly if not only found in northeast of America, they are refer to as the periodical Cicadas, they have long fascinated biologists.

For just a few weeks during spring, millions of periodical Cicadas appear suddenly. They have a very short time(lifespan) and during this short time  in the sun, the Cicadas go through a period of life cycle amazingly, they shed their juvenile skin, sing deafeningly, fly, reproduce and then Die. Now this is not strange enough, the most should i say Amazing or Strange life of this insect is that Its next generation appears about 13 or 17 years later, depending on the species. The question now is, What happens to these insects during this period of 13 to 17 years?

To get an answer to the question above, one need to first clearly understand the unique life cycle of the periodical Cicadas. This is how their life cycle begins, After a week of appearance, Adult insects mate and the females lay about 400 to 600 eggs inside tree twigs. After this, the Adults die (Male and Female). Within the next few weeks, the eggs hatch and the young nymphs drop to the earth, burrow into the soil and they begin a life underground, where they suck fluids from the roots of shrubs or trees for several years. Approximately about 13 or 17 years later, this new generation emerges from underneath the soil to repeat the cycle.

According to one from Awake magazine " this can be refer to as an unprecedented mystery in the animal kingdom" and i agree with the statement because according to another article in Nature magazine, the complex life cycle of these Cicadas "has confounded scientists for centuries.....even now, entomologists are trying to understand how the insects peculiar life cycles evolved". If you want to check and always see something amazing, the right place to look is nature, Yeaa nature.

What do you think about the life of the periodical Cicadas? drop your comments below