Backyard and Beyond

An annual dog day Neotibicen cicada. Not to be confused with:

A periodical Magicicada cicada, like this one from Princeton during this spring’s Brood X emergence.

These annual cicadas are seen every year, but “annual” is a bit deceiving. The dog day cicadas spend several years underground sucking on tree roots, just like the periodical cicadas. Instead of epic 13 or 17 year underground years, however, the annuals only spend 3-5 years underground. There’s a “brood” every year, though, so it seems as if this year’s crop is the result of last year’s planting, as it were.