The Return of the Largest Brood of Periodical Cicadas

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Behavior, Biological Evolution, Nature, Wildlife

Ed Hessler

This is the big year for a brood of periodical cicadas known as Brood X, the largest of 12 broods of 17-year cicadas, which emerge in different years.

Consider a life spent underground for 17-years and then tunneling to the surface, becoming adults, mating, laying eggs and then to die in a few weeks.  The next generation waiting underground for years before emerging.

CBS's Sunday Morning's Chip Reid did a story (4m 52s) on their return which includes, of course, eating them in cookies.