Cicadas Mesmerize Our Region
An adult cicada rests on a leaf with a swathe of recently-shed cicada shells (also called exuviae).
In a marvelous act of nature, one trillion periodical cicadas have emerged into our eastern forests this spring! Dubbed “cicada-geddon” by some, our country has witnessed the synchronization in time and space for both the Great Southern Brood and the Northern Illinois Brood. To put this into perspective, the two broods have not emerged together since 1803!
Here in Chattanooga, we hosted millions of the Great Southern Brood in May and June. These cicadas, born in 2011, lived underground as larvae extracting nutrients from tree roots for 13 years. In late spring, they emerged at maturity to eat, mate, and die—all in a short span of six weeks!
These insects benefit our local ecosystem as natural tree gardeners. Their tunnels aerate the soil so that rainwater can nourish trees, and their pruning leads to higher fruit yields. Cicadas provide a protein-filled snack for wildlife. Their arrival in such great numbers helps to ensure their survival. One study from the 1950s estimated as many as a million individuals per acre, a number that overwhelms any possible predator, ensuring that plenty will survive to continue their lifecycle. Extrapolating on the million per acre estimate, we may have experienced as many as 300 million cicadas on Reflection Riding’s campus alone!
We invite you to explore all the creepy crawlies on our grounds. As a community, we hold so much power through citizen science! Contribute to the Reflection Riding Biodiversity Inventory by uploading your photos or audio recordings to iNaturalist. We compile all observations made on our site automatically.
This newly emerged cicada retains lighter colors while it transitions from a nymph to an adult. Shortly, the cicada will darken in color, and its exoskeleton will harden.
