Trivia question for Oct-12-2011

Olivia likes bugs and that includes these loud insects.  The mating sounds of an adult male of this species is considered among the loudest produced by any insect.

The nymphs emerge on a Spring evening when the soil temperature at about 8 inches depth is above 63 °F. In most years, this works out to late April or early May in far southern states, and late May to early June in the far northern states. Emerging nymphs climb to a suitable place on the nearby vegetation to complete their transformation into an adults. They molt one last time and then spend about six days in the leaves waiting for their exoskeleton to harden completely. Just after this final molt, the tenurial adults are white, but darken within an hour.

So here are Olivia’s questions: What is this odd acting insect and how many can be found in a single acre when they emerge?  Also, tell us what these insects are not capable of doing which most grasshoppers and crickets can?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations goes out to Valerie Soraci from Boulder CO for being the first with the correct answer. The strange insect we featured is the Periodical Cicadas. Magi-cicada is the genus of the 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas of eastern North America. They are sometimes called “17-year locusts”.

Magi-cicada spend all but a very few weeks of their long lives silent and immobile underground. Then thousands of nymphs emerge from holes in the earth and, within hours, become gregarious flying adults, whose courtship calls make them the loudest insect known.[citation needed] Two months later, however, the adults of that brood are all dead, leaving behind eggs that will hatch to become a new underground generation, one that will emerge again in 13 or 17 years.

When they do emerge, they can be so numerous that there can be as much as 1.5-million of these bugs crawling around in a single acre.  And unlike their insect friends the grasshoppers and crickets, Cicadas can not hop.  Here is more on these swarming pests: Periodical Cicadas

Thanks for playing along 😉