Brood X cicadas have begun emerging in Michigan. But the big show is yet to come.

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) It took awhile — 17 years — but a unique population of bizarre-looking, flying insects known as Brood X cicadas have finally begun their emergence to the surface in Michigan.

The big show is still to come later in June, when by the millions the cicadas with fire-engine-red eyes take to the trees, the males in a droning, buzzing chorus, trying to attract a mate. But some earlier arrivers have been reported at multiple wooded sites over recent days, particularly around Ann Arbor.

In a phenomenon scientists still don't fully understand, the Brood X cicadas — in southern Michigan, the District of Columbia and 14 other eastern U.S. states — spend 17 years in larval form underground, feeding on the sap of tree roots; then almost in unison emerge in their 17th spring.

Scientific research has shown the soil reaching a temperature of 64 degrees down to 8 inches deep seems to trigger the cicadas to emerge from the ground en masse. They climb into trees, molt into their adult, winged forms, and then it's loud buzzing, mating, laying eggs and dying for about a month. ...........(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/05/28/cicadas-2021-michigan/7471201002/