Cicadas: The Background Noise of SC
What's the Buzz? Take a listen to the sound of cicadas, or Magicicada, below. The average southern night is filled with the unrelenting song of male cicadas, trying to attract a mate. Annual and Periodical Not just one wave, but two. The Magicicada , or North American cicada, is native to eastern North America, to include SC. Its population consists of twelve seventeen-year broods and three thirteen-year broods. While the term "brood" may sound like an alternative for "species", it is intended to describe a group of cicadas that emerges on the same schedule rather than shares the same attributes. In fact, a brood can contain multiple species of cicadas (UCONN Biodiversity Research Collections: Periodical Cicadas) . Periodical cicadas will emerge from the ground in these broods every thirteen to seventeen summers after living underground, tunneling, and feeding on roots. At this stage, they are called nymp...