With Periodical Cicadas Gone, Here Come the Annual Cicadas…Right on Schedule!
As the choruses of Brood XIV Periodical Cicadas fall silent for another seventeen years, the sounds of the more widespread annual Neotibicen cicadas are starting to be heard throughout the lower Susquehanna valley. These latter insects have a more abbreviated life cycle, spending just two to five years in the subterranean nymphal stage before appearing during mid-summer to breed. The emergence of these annual insects is not synchronized into broods, so some adults are found taking flight, singing, and mating every year. Over the centuries, male annual cicadas that emerged and commenced courtship songs earlier than July have certainly failed to successfully reproduce during Periodical Cicada years. So to avoid competition with the overwhelming drone of the seventeen-year cicadas that may emerge along with them, natural selection has delayed the maturation of the annual species until just after the periodicals have gone quiet. To see pictures and hear the sounds of our five (now 6 as of July 24th) species of annual cicadas, click the “Cicadas” tab at the top of this page.
