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Boston Globe

They're baaack! After 17 years underground, Brood XIV cicadas are suddenly emerging.

Advertisement Since I'm not an entomologist, I reached out to Christine Simon, a senior research scientist at the University of Connecticut's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, to help me understand these interesting bugs. She's been studying Magicicada, aka periodical cicadas, since 1974, and this will be her fourth time studying the emergence of this brood. Part of the order Hemiptera, these unique and sometimes misunderstood insects are part of a large group known as 'true bugs.' While you may refer to things crawling around your house as a bug, true bugs have, among other characteristics, two pairs of wings, and beak-like mouth parts made for sucking fluids from plants or animals. Advertisement Periodical cicadas that emerge every 17 years in about a dozen areas in the US. Gene Kritsky Also unlike other insects, all true bugs must go through what is called 'incomplete metamorphosis,' which means they hatch as nymphs from their egg on tree branches. Think of a nymph as a miniature version of the adult bug, a sort of 'mini-me.' True bugs include cicadas, grasshoppers, stink bugs, and bed bugs, to name a few. Mosquitoes may bug you, but they are not true bugs. The second largest group of periodic cicadas in the US, Brood XIV will really start to emerge the third week of May. They can emerge in the thousands, but these are not some biblical plague of locusts, despite all of the misinformation out there. As they head into the trees, they won't be swarming because they actually don't move very far from where they emerge. 'Honeybees swarm. These just happen to be in large numbers,' said Gene Kritsky, an author of cicada books and professor emeritus in biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. 'They generally come out in the evening just after dark,' said Simon. 'The emergence can take place every night for a week, with males more common at the beginning of the week and females more common near the end of the week. If it's cold and rainy that week, the emergence can be drawn out.' Cicadas of Brood XIV from a previous year. Gene Kritsky A couple of other things about these bugs you should know: They are not menacing. They don't sting or bite humans. If you look at their bulging red eyes, they're actually kind of cute. They also are not dangerous to plants and trees. After they emerge, they will lay their eggs in trees, and there can be some minor damage, like any other insect does to foliage during the summer. The cicadas die three to four weeks later. Advertisement For those of you in areas where these cicadas are emerging, this is an opportunity to be a citizen scientist and provide valuable information to researchers. According to Simon, this year there will be various people out mapping throughout the range of Brood XIV. Kritsky developed the Observations and the study of the periodic cicada have a lengthy history. Kritsky said the Brood XIV cicadas were documented as far as back as 1770 in Cape Cod and in 1634 in Plymouth. In 1834, Gideon B. Smith is, according to the University of Maryland, credited with identifying the cycle of the 17-year cicada or brood, the very one emerging this year! He reportedly studied cicadas from 1817 until he died in 1867. He was friends with John James Audubon, the American ornithologist.. One of the images that I couldn't help get out of my head was the fact that, like the entire insect population of the world, these guys are under pressure, especially from humans. Seventeen years ago, these Magicicada cicadas hatched from eggs in trees and made their way down into the ground where they spent all these years maturing. One of the problems is that parking lots and buildings have replaced some of these trees and smothered the insects alive. I just couldn't help feeling bad for these little creatures. Advertisement Finally, if you are wondering how climate change might be affecting these periodical bugs, the answers are still a bit unclear. One hypothesis is that a warming climate can cause the various broods to emerge ahead of schedule due to a longer growing season, more feeding time in the ground, and a faster move through the various underground stages. What we do know is that after the cicadas have mated and laid their eggs, the next generation of Brood XIV is scheduled to emerge in 2042. Where might we all be when that happens?