Cicadas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cicadas - Essay Example The female lay 4-5 mm long egg on the ventral thorax. Their life cycle takes 17 years in northern species and 13 years in southern species; the two types overlap in parts of the United States. In about six weeks the wingless, scaly larvae, or nymphs, burrow into the ground, where they remain for 13 or 17 years, feeding on juices, the xylem sap, sucked from roots of the flora present in that area encompassing grasses, forbs or trees. The nymphal development takes numerous years. The nymphs molt periodically as they grow; finally the full-grown nymphs emerge, climb a short distance reaches the tree trunks, herb stem and fences, anchors itself with the help of its tarsal claws to protect itself and molts or shed their last larval skin. The winged adults generally emerge together in large numbers, live for about one week. Its nymphal shell remains as proof indicating the transition in the life cycle of the cicadas. This is also a transition from its restricted life to free life where it has freedom to fly. Cicadas are known as strong fliers with a high visual alertness. Adults feed on xylem sap and have a life span of a few weeks. Different broods mature at regular intervals, so that at least one colony is conspicuous in some part of the United States each year, and even in a given locality a brood may appear every few years. Other North American cic