Cicadas

The article "Cicadas are coming! Brood VI Returns After 17 Years" explains to the reader the main differences between periodical and annual cicadas as well as how the different periodical cicadas are categorized. The differences between these two types of cicadas are when they come into season, and there size. For example the periodicals tend to come later then the annuals but the annuals are significantly bigger. The reason that Brood VI is a headline is that Broods are classified by the yea that they come on. Scientists believe that there are about 30 broods and that the first 15 exist in the North Eastern U.S.A. and the last 15 live in the more Southern part of the U.S.A. According to Chris Simon, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut, each brood is expected to come out of the ground every 17 years which is caused the the temperature of the soil. The article continues to tell about the diet of the cicadas and the impacts they can have on the environment.

I found this article very interesting and informing about Cicadas. Also I was surprised that there are Broods which are classified by location and year in which they emerge. I have one question: the article said that the cicadas came out when the soil was the right temperature, this seems pretty unspecific. Does anyone know what determines the birth of the different broods?

Weisberger, Mindy. "Cicadas Are Coming! Brood VI Returns After 17 Years." LiveScience. Purch, 12 June 2017. Web. 18 June 2017.
https://www.livescience.com/57606-cicada-season.html