Brood II is one of 15 separate broods of ''Magicicada'' (periodical cicadas) that appear regularly throughout the northeastern United States. Every 17 years, Brood II tunnels ''en masse'' to the surface of the ground, mates, lays

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

, and then dies off over the span of several weeks. Although entomologist C. L. Marlatt published an account in 1907 in which he argued for the existence of 30 broods, over the years a number have been consolidated and only 15 are recognized today as being distinct. Brood II is among the 12 different broods with 17-year cycles.

History

In 1775,

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

recorded in his "Garden Book" Brood II's 17-year periodicity, writing that an acquaintance remembered "great locust years" in 1724 and 1741, that he and others recalled another such year in 1758 and that the insects had again emerged from the ground at

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

in 1775. He noted that the females lay their eggs in the small twigs of trees while above ground. Brood II last appeared in the late spring and summer of 2013, and will emerge again in 2030 and 2047. The black

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s do not sting or bite. Once they emerge, they spend their short, two-week adult lives climbing trees, shedding their crunchy skins and reproducing. They can number up to a million per hectare (2.5 acres).

2013 emergence

In 2013, to aid in accurately mapping the geographic range of Brood II,

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's science show

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program and podcast produced by WNYC, a public radio station based in New York City, and broadcast on more than 570 public radio stations in the United States. The show has earned many industry awards for its "imaginati ...

created the Cicada Tracker project. It encouraged listeners to use a mix of

Arduino Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...

-based tools to report the underground soil temperature so as to predict when the cicadas would appear. The

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

References

External links

* * Cicadas {{Auchenorrhyncha-stub