With reports of spinning fish, lengthening heatwaves, and the rest, we might reasonably flinch at the phrase “ecological event.” But here’s one such event many of you can enjoy, even embrace, right here in the U.S., from your back deck or on a walk in the woods: a massive emergence of cicadas.
They’re a special kind of cicada that live underground for 13 to 17 years, and live in separate geographic groups, or broods, that follow a similar cadence of emerging from the earth, mating, and reproducing.
Joseph Polidoro is a Sarasota, Florida-based independent science writer. His work has appeared in Scientific American and Science News.
