Diagram of a Cicada

Advantages

Adaptation
Cicadas have the longest life cycle of any insect, ranging from 2 to 17 years. Only the male cicadas make the loud, buzzing noise that can be heard hundreds of feet away.

Cicadas dont eat leaves. They are sap suckers and dont do much damage to plants. They help stimulate plant growth by eating damaged or dying leaves. Before they come to the surface, cicada larvae tunnel through the soil and help aerate plant roots. This process goes on for 17 years! They also consume organic matter and break up debris, just like earthworms. When the cicadas emerge, their exit holes further aerate the ground. Cicadas are a great natural source of fertilizer. They only live on the surface for a few short days, and after they pass away, their bodies quickly break down into nitrogen and other nutrients that plants can use. This produces faster growing trees, and bigger seeds in some flowers for several years following the cicadas emergence. Cicadas are a food source. Many people around the world eat cicadas. Cicadas are high protein. Animals such as birds, coyotes, and monkeys enjoy eating cicadas. Cicadas provide people with a job. Those people include professors and researchers, scientists and landscapers.

Summer the

adults

emerge in May and live above ground for 4 6 weeks. Eggs are laid at the beginning to the middle of June and the nymphs fall to the ground and burrow below the soil for the next 13- 17 years. There they will feed and await their next emergence in 2021.

As many as 400 eggs are laid in the bark of twigs by the adult females. The nymphs hatch from eggs and fall to the ground at the end of June. They burrow approximately 8 to 10 inches below the soil where they find tree roots and eat the sap. While they live for 13 to 17 years underground, cicadas molt (sheds its skin) many times as they grow. When the nymphs mature and the ground temperature reaches 64 degrees (after a soaking rain), they tunnel their way to the surface to shed their juvenile skin. As the nymphs shed their skin adults emerge. The periodical cicadas in an area emerge as adults hatch all at once, in May. They live above ground for 4 6 weeks while they mate and then die.

Fall

the nymphs live

underground for the next 13 17 years.

Winter - the nymphs

live underground for the next 13 17 years.

Spring - the nymphs

live underground for the next 13 17 years.

Researchers:
Aunestee Brinkley Nekoriah Claiborne Gary Cole Kevin Estrada KaMari Gates Logan Gonzalez Lonnell Kyles Beronica Luiz Demario Marshall Evelyn Mirandez Douglas Moore Javon Paxton Jamon Pitts Ashawnti Pointer Denise Ramey Adriana Rosales James Scollard JerMia Snipes Chariah Solomon DeAndre Thornton Jacinta Walker Kaleb Yokley

Sources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada animals.nationalgeographic.com/a nimals/bugs/cicada/ www.cicadamania.com/ site.cleanairgardening.com/info/ar e-cicadas-good-for-anything.html www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/w hat-is-the-purpose-of-cicadas/ http://articles.cnn.com/2004-1125/tech/CICADAS_1_cicadasground-and-burrowinsects?_s=PM:TECH

Cicada Field Guide

http://treeinabox.com/wordpres s/benefits-of-cicadas/

Mrs. Johnstons 2nd grade class

Hattie Cotton STEM Magnet Elementary

December 13, 2013