Billions of cicadas emerging after 17 years underground

In this video, we catch up with the emergence of periodical cicadas in the US, after having spent nearly two decades burrowed beneath the soil.

Groups of cicadas that share the same emergence years are known as broods, and this spring, bugs belonging to one of the biggest broods of 17-year cicadas – ‘Brood X’ – are making their appearance.

Periodical cicadas are different than annual cicadas. They spend almost their whole lives a foot or two underground, living on sap from tree roots. Then, in the spring of their 13th or 17th year, depending on the type, mature cicada nymphs emerge for a brief adult stage, mate and then die, and their newly-hatched offspring drop to the ground and burrow in for the next 13 or 17 years… until the cycle repeats.

View the original video here.

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