The World Hasn’t Seen Cicadas Like This Since 1803

88m3

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This spring, for the first time since 1803, two cicada groups known as Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, or the Northern Illinois Brood, are set to appear at the same time, in what is known as a dual emergence.

The last time the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year period, Thomas Jefferson was president. After this spring, it’ll be another 221 years before the broods, which are geographically adjacent, appear together again.

From close up, a cicada and its exoskeleton on a white brick wall.


Ya'll ready?
 

88m3

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Dr. Shockley said the dual emergence would most likely result in more than one trillion cicadas appearing in the roughly 16-state area where the two broods are generally seen. Forested areas, including urban green spaces, will have higher numbers than will agricultural regions. To put that into perspective, one trillion cicadas, each of which are just over an inch long, would cover 15,782,828 miles if they were laid end-to-end.

“That cicada train would reach to the moon and back 33 times,” he said.
 

Ciggavelli

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I lived in Cincinnati for a bit when I was a young child and experienced one of those broods. shyt was absolutely insane and scary as a child. There are so, so many of them. It was like it was raining cicadas. They are ugly too. I'm glad we don't have those in Houston :blessed:
 
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